Stargate Millennium
by Calai'di
Summary: SEQUEL TO HIEROGLYPHICS IN THE STARS! This is important! If you have not read HitS, you may not uderstand this story. YGOStargate crossover, PG13 for whole story, each 'episode' is a different chap in this 'season'. Episode 5 is now up!
1. In The Air

Calai'di–This is a sequel to _Hieroglyphics in the Stars_, or pretty much SG-M's adventures through the Stargate. For those who don't know (those who didn't read HitS), Bakura was a Tok'ra operative who was trying to get the Millennium Items to help save the Earth. When Anubis attacked, he and the other Item holders combined their powers and blew up all of Anubis's fleet. To pay them back for their help, Hammond authorized the formation of a new team, SG-M, comprised of Yugi (Atemu), Ryou (Bakura), Malik, and Kaiba.

Each episode in this 'season' will be a different chapter and will be commercial free for your enjoyment.

I don't own Stargate, Yugioh, Artemis Fowl, or anything else that's already copyrighted by someone else, only the plot lines of each episode.

Notes: I'm getting used to calling Yami 'Atemu' and since his name was revealed to him in HitS, that's what I'm calling him here.  
I'm also setting this season sometime after 'New Order', the first episode of season eight, so Dr. Fraiser is dead. However, I like Gen. Hammond, so I decided to keep him at the SGC and keep O'Neill and Carter as Colonel and Major. And since I like Kamulus (sp?) as well, I decided he could stay with the Tau'ri instead of being sent to Baal. (Of course, I bet a lot of you don't know what I'm talking about, so for you, just sit there, look pretty, and don't worry about it.)

&&&&&&&&

****

Episode 1: In the Air

After five months of training, the new team, SG-M, was finally ready to go through the Stargate. Following a long debate, it was decided that Malik could be the leader of this team, probably only because he was like O'Neill and leaders like that seemed to do well. Bakura, of course, was second in command, then Atemu, and last, Kaiba. They'd spent five months learning some of the necessary skills to survive on the other side of the Gate, and it would pay off today. SG-M was going on its first recon mission.

The MALP showed that the planet designated P4C-791 had suitable atmospheric conditions and the immediate vicinity around the Gate was clear. As such, the four teens stood nervously in front of the shimmering blue event horizon, almost ready to walk through.

"Do you have any idea what this might feel like?" Malik asked apprehensively.

"Nope," Bakura answered. "Let's go." He grabbed Malik by the collar and stepped through; Malik seized Kaiba and dragged him in. Atemu glanced once back at the control room and stepped through after them…

_&&Wormhole Sequence…&&_

…On the other side, they came to an open field surrounded by a ring of trees. The Stargate was sitting flush to the ground, so they didn't have to walk down any stairs to get to ground level. The MALP was sitting a short distance away near the DHD. When Atemu appeared through the Gate, he immediately collapsed to the ground.

"Oh gods, I'm going to be sick," he muttered.

"Then do it somewhere we won't step in it," Kaiba said sarcastically.

"All right, Bakura, what do you think about this?" Malik asked. He gestured around them; two circles of large standing stones encircled the Gate, one in line with the DHD and one a short distance beyond it. The white-haired yami looked closely one of the stones; an odd sort of writing covered the top of it.

"It looks like Babylonian. Hey Pharaoh, get over here!"

"What?" Atemu got up and walked to the stone Bakura was standing next to. "Yeah, that looks like Babylonian. I can't translate it though. I don't know that language."

"So take pictures of it so Dr. Jackson can translate it," Malik suggested. His tone drew stares from the others.

"Malik, you don't sound very thrilled to be here," Atemu said accusingly.

"It just…doesn't look very different from Earth is all. I thought there might be floating cities and interstellar spaceships and things like that. You know, like what we read about in SG-1's mission reports."

"We just haven't found that stuff yet," Bakura answered. "Lighten up, Malik. Even Kaiba's having fun, and that's saying something." They glanced at the boy in question, who was poking different spots on one of the stones, probably to see if it would open.

"I can't believe we're seeing _Kaiba_ doing that," Atemu said.

"He does looks like he's having fun," Malik agreed.

Bakura looked around. "This looks like one of those ceremonial stone circles in England. Like Stonehenge."

"But the writing is Babylonian," Atemu mused, copying Kaiba's actions on a different stone. "Inter–"

"Hey, Malik!"

They turned to see Kaiba moving abruptly from the stone he'd been studying. What looked like a gold tube was rising slowly out of the top; when it stopped, the rock next to it followed suit, then the next, then the next… When the last stone had opened, a force-shield projected out from the first rod to the next and so on until it surrounded them. Then the force shield grew until it hit the ground and trapped the four teens inside next to the Gate with the DHD out of reach.

"Kaiba! What did you do?!" Atemu exclaimed angrily.

"How am I supposed to know? I don't read Babylonian!"

"I think what everyone can read is the least of our problems," Bakura said, breaking up what could have been a very bad argument. "We should figure out how to get out of here." He walked to the energy-barrier and reached out to touch it; as soon as his finger made contact, he flew backwards and landed almost near the other teens, his hand smoking slightly.

"I suggest none of us tries that again," Malik said lightly as the spirit staggered to his feet. Bakura growled at the wall in frustration.

"I hate technology," he muttered; behind him, Kaiba shook his head with disgust.

"All right, so now what?"

"I say we shoot one of those stones with one of those 'Zat' things and see if it explodes."

"Thief, how did you ever become a Tok'ra?"

"I explained that already. Can I shoot it now?"

"Go ahead Bakura."

Bakura took the Zat out of his pocket, opened it, and shot the offending stone standing in front of him. The energy blast didn't affect the force-shield at all. Bakura cursed quietly and fired again, though he didn't think it would do anything, which it didn't.

"Well, there goes that plan," Malik said. Then his face lit up and he continued, "Bakura, can you read Babylonian?"

"I'm a bit rusty, but I think I could."

They stared at each other for a moment; Malik's eyebrow raised in expectancy. "Well?…go on!"

Bakura grinned at him and approached the stone Kaiba had been poking, and he was soon running his finger up and down the lines of cuneiform. After a few moments, during which both Atemu and Kaiba thought about dueling the other, Bakura jabbed three different spots on the stone and the force-shield disappeared.

"Good job," Malik commented as he walked out of the stone circle.

"Couldn't you have done that about five minutes ago?" Kaiba asked sarcastically as he followed the Egyptian.

"None of you ever asked," Bakura answered. He glanced around and scowled. "Pharaoh, stop playing with that stupid thing and come on."

Atemu looked up from the DHD and glared back. "I'm sorry, _thief_, but I've never seen one of these before. Daniel said the one on Earth was destroyed, remember? And I'd rather like to figure out how to get home. So excuse me if I seem too inquisitive for your thieving tastes."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"We all know the only reason you're doing this is so you can steal more often, thief."

"What?! I'm doing this because it's what I was meant to do, and so I can help the Tok'ra protect your pathetic planet!"

"So now it's only _my_ planet? It's not _yours_ anymore?"

"I've been waiting three thousand years to get off that stupid place! You can't blame me if–"

"Hey! Would you two stop fighting and follow us?!" Malik exclaimed, causing both of them to jump. "Pharaoh, you stay here and figure out how to get home. Bakura, let's go!"

The thief scowled and stalked off after Malik and Kaiba, saying as he passed by the DHD, "This isn't over, Pharaoh. I'm going to beat your ass and send it back to whatever hellhole you came from sooner or later."

"You wish, thief!" Atemu called after him.

Bakura, Malik, and Kaiba had been walking for about a mile when they stopped in awe. Ahead of them was a large city with an accumulation of multi-color crystal spires standing all the way to the clouds. Around the city stood a circle of blue crystal domes with silver fountains spouting out of the top. Humanoid like figures as colorful as the city flew deftly through the sky, sending silver sparks out behind them. The three teens stood entranced until the flying things suddenly disappeared.

"That looks different than Earth," Kaiba said dryly.

"It's like…a fairy tale…" Bakura said in a softer voice.

"Easy, thief-boy, we don't even know if it's dangerous or not," Malik said, holding out his hand to stop the other teen's steps forward.

"But how can something so beautiful be dangerous?" This time his voice sounded like both Ryou and Bakura at the same time.

"Think about yourself," Kaiba answered with absolutely no embarrassment. He took out a TER and glanced at the others. "Maybe we should see if it is or not. If you can handle it, Bakura."

Bakura smirked and pushed past Malik toward the crystal city. "I can handle anything, priest."

As they entered the city, Kaiba swept the TER back and forth in front of them so the invisible creatures wouldn't catch them by surprise, but it was hard to see anything through the mist that had suddenly settled in. Malik tripped once and cut his hand on a piece of broken glass, and afterward he felt a small tingling sensation through his body, but otherwise their journey was boring. Building after building was either a library or a museum, all of which had the same cuneiform writing. Bakura, who was in charge of recording all of this, soon got board and started looking for things to steal almost subconsciously. As they passed through a certain museum, a small golden necklace found its way into his pocket without the others noticing.

Tired and bored, the three teens returned to the Gate and an equally bored looking Atemu.

"How was it?" he asked as they approached.

"Well, you can see the footage of the city when we get back," Bakura answered dryly. The city had lost its enchantment for him after the tenth building they'd entered.

"I get to go to the infirmary though," Malik said, holding up his bleeding hand.

"Are you all right?" Atemu asked with concern.

"I will be fine, Atemu. Do not worry about me."

The pharaoh raised an eyebrow in suspicion, then shrugged and started pressing symbols on the DHD. As he pressed the last symbol, the Stargate activated and a fog suddenly descended on them.

"That's different," Atemu commented as the clouds grew thicker. He took out a GDO and typed in a few numbers. "All right, we can get through now."

"Come on, before we lose the Gate in this," Malik said, racing toward the Gate. The others followed, just barely able to see, and ran straight into event horizon…

…And out onto the metal platform in front of the Stargate in the SGC. They walked briskly down the wicker-like metal ramp as the Gate deactivated behind them and found General Hammond waiting for them.

"SG…M, you're back three hours early," he said worriedly. "What happened?"

"Not much, sir," Malik answered. "May I go to the infirmary, please? My hand is bleeding rather profusely." He held up his hand to prove it.

"I think all of you should report to the infirmary. We'll debrief at 1500 hours."

Malik bowed once and strolled briskly out of the room, followed by the yamis and Kaiba, who were glancing uneasily at each other. There was something off with the way Malik was acting.

&&&&&&&&

"So, there was nothing there," the General said. The teens had just finished telling him about the flying creatures that had disappeared without a trace.

"No, there was something there," Ryou answered. He and Yugi had taken control for the briefing. "We just couldn't find it."

"It was boring, sir," Kaiba said shortly.

"No, it wasn't boring. It was just something that someone like Dr. Jackson would find interesting," Ryou countered, glaring once down the table at the taller teen.

"What about this 'fog' you said seemed to appear when you activated the Stargate?"

"It was probably an alien defense, like the force-shield," Malik said, still in the same drawling tone he'd been using since they'd gotten back through the Gate. His hand had been fixed up quite well, but it did seem to keep bleeding.

"A defense against what?" Hammond said skeptically.

"The beings on that planet are probably a very secretive race, hence why they disappeared when we approached. The shield was most likely something to keep us away from them, and the fog was probably something to keep us from coming back with what we knew."

Ryou and Yugi frowned at each other, shaken a bit by how passive Malik sounded. And he was being polite, which unnerved them more than his calmness; Malik Ishtar was never this polite to anyone.

"Hey Malik, are you feeling all right?" Yugi asked after a short silence.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask, Yugi?"

"Malik, maybe we should take you back to the infirmary," Ryou suggested, standing up.

"Whatever for?"

By now, even Hammond was noticing that something was wrong. When Ryou shot a pleading look at him, he nodded and said, "Dismissed."

"Come on, Malik, let's go," Bakura said as he took control. Atemu followed suit and together they tried to drag the other Egyptian out the door, but he wrenched free of their grasp and backed away.

"What is wrong with you two?" he asked, though his voice betrayed little emotion at all.

"I think the better question is, what's wrong with you?" Bakura said.

"There is nothing wrong with me. I am a little hungry, though." He made a move toward the stairs but stopped as the Ring began to glow.

"Don't take another step, Malik," Bakura hissed warningly. Malik stood impassively for a moment, then suddenly dashed past Bakura, not pausing as he grabbed the stolen necklace from the other teen's pocket. The thief growled and tried to stop him, but the shadow magic couldn't touch him as he disappeared down the stairs to the control room. The two spirits raced after him down the stairs and were almost thrown off as a bloodcurdling screech passed them by. They saw a flash of gold as Malik raced out of the room, and he appeared a short time later in the Gate Room, staring anxiously at the interstellar portal. Atemu slammed his hand down on the iris controller as the wormhole activated and the iris slid closed. Malik cried out again and stared angrily up at Atemu.

"Let me go!" he ordered. The pharaoh was shocked at his voice; a handsome voice, so much unlike Malik's, with subtle undertones, like five voices in one. Kaiba grabbed his arm to stop him from obeying the command, quite immune to this new voice himself.

"I order you to allow me passage through the Stargate!" Malik yelled again, but no matter how angry he sounded, his face remained as impassive as before. Like he was a puppet being controlled by some alien master…or possessor. Atemu shook his head to clear it and grabbed the microphone standing on the computer console.

"This is Atemu. Absolutely do not let Malik Ishtar out of the Gate Room!" he commanded. Down below, the airmen guarding the Gate raised their guns and aimed, ready to shoot if the teen made a break for it. Malik fidgeted and screamed in frustration, but otherwise betrayed no emotions. Bakura entered the room just as the screaming stopped and shot once at the boy; Malik's expression didn't change didn't at all.

"That had to have been enough tranquilizer to take down a hippopotamus," Atemu muttered as Malik pulled the dart out of his side. Malik glanced once at the Stargate and turned his lavender eyes back at the pharaoh.

"Let me go through the Chappa'ai!" he demanded again. Atemu shook his head; Malik glared at him, screamed again, and collapsed heavily to the ground. Bakura relinquished control and Ryou ran over to his fallen friend, joined a short time later by Yugi and Kaiba. Together, they picked up the Egyptian and carried him out of the room.

&&&&&&&&

Yugi cautiously approached Dr. Jackson's office and knocked twice on the door, amused as the older man jumped in surprise. Daniel briefly looked up from the book he was scouring and smiled.

"Yugi, come in."

"Arigato, Daniel-san." Yugi walked up to the desk and looked down at the book Daniel was reading. "What are reading?"

" '_Norse Mythology Under a Microscope_'," Daniel answered. "Did you need something?"

"Uh, Ryou and I are supposed to translate the text we found on the planet yesterday, but only Bakura knows Babylonian and he's refusing to help at the moment." Yugi shrugged apologetically and placed a small tape on the table. "I was wondering if you could help."

"That's what I'm here for," Daniel said as he closed the book. He picked up the tape and slid it into the computer. "I just happen to be fluent in that language."

They watched the footage of the city and its writing in awe for a few minutes with Daniel telling Yugi what each glyph meant in English, until the doctor paused it and asked, "Is Bakura with Malik?"

"You heard what happened?"

"It was kind of hard not to. Around here, things like that are extremely important. I heard he had a tantrum."

"You could call it that." Yugi picked up a book and started looking through it. "It was really weird, like he was possessed or something. And his voice changed."

"That sounds like a Gou'ald. 'Beginning'," Daniel said, pointing to one of the glyphs. Yugi slapped his forehead and scribbled a few words on a piece of paper.

"I didn't sense anything though." He noticed Daniel's questioning look and went on, "Ryou and I have noticed that we can sense when a Gou'ald's around. It always happens when we're around Teal'c and Samantha-san, though it's a lot stronger around the Tok'ra and Kamulus. But I didn't sense a thing when I was near Malik."

"So that's why Sam and Teal'c can never sneak into a room with one of you in it. Looks like I win." Daniel laughed a little at Yugi's expression. "Jack and I had a bet on that. He thought you two had exceptional hearing or something." He frowned slightly at the paper. "That one means 'birthplace', not 'homeland'." Yugi's face fell slightly and he erased his mistake.

"I was going to visit Malik after lunch or dinner," Yugi said as he wrote in the correct translation. He glanced up at the screen, smiled, and added about four more lines of text. "You can come with me if you want, Daniel-san."

"You're fast," Daniel said approvingly as he watched Yugi scribble word after word.

"I'm a quick study," was the boy's reply. "Do you want to come with me? I don't think Bakura will mind."

"They seem really close."

"I think Malik was his second real friend…in this lifetime anyway. They went through a lot together." Yugi flipped through his book and scribbled something else. "I never thought Bakura had many friends before I found out about the Tok'ra. He had Ryou and Malik, and that's all I knew of."

"Ryou seemed afraid of him when we first met him."

"He wasn't. He's just a shy person. And Bakura's hard to get along with because he's…well, insane. That's 'demon', right?" he said suddenly, pointing at a glyph. Daniel nodded and he went on. "I think it's their differences that let them get along so well. Just like for me and Yami, it's our similarities. (AN: Yugi still calls Atemu 'Yami') It's a really special relationship for people like us and the Tok'ra." He frowned and stopped writing for a moment. "I wonder…"

"What's wrong."

"I'd almost forgotten. Malik has a dark side, too, but it's different than Bakura and Yami. He actually has another personality that's part of him. We thought he'd taken care of that, and Yami Malik never acted this polite, but…" He trailed off disconcertingly and went back to translating.

"I think I'd like to come with you," Daniel said quietly.

"Okay. Thanks, Daniel-san."

&&&&&&&&

"It's about time you two got here," Bakura growled as Yugi and Daniel entered to holding room. It was the same one Sam had occupied when she was possessed by Jolinar, and Daniel wasn't all too pleased about being back here. "He woke up a few minutes ago."

"You will not detain me here," said the handsome voice. Malik was sitting cross-legged on a bed, his passive appearance crossed by metal bars.

"Who are you?" Yugi asked him.

"Malik Ishtar."

"He's said that every time I've asked, too," Bakura said, "but Malik doesn't use words like 'detain' correctly on a regular basis."

"Yeah, but he knew Yami's name," Yugi said.

"And Malik never calls Pharaoh anything but that," Bakura countered.

"Who are you?" Yugi asked again. He received the same answer, and they glared at each other for a few moments, though for Malik only his eyes glared. After a moment, Yugi sighed and gave over control to Atemu.

"Do you have a TER anywhere around here?" he asked Daniel. The archaeologist pointed to a stack of weapons on one side of the room and then walked up to the bars as Atemu dug through the pile.

"Where are you from?" he asked. Malik remained silent and crossed his arms. Daniel tried again. "Are you going to answer any of our questions?"

"If I am allowed to go through the Chappa'ai," Malik answered stiffly. His eyes twitched as Atemu approached, holding the TER in one hand.

"It's on, but I don't see anything," he muttered. "It's odd. I sense something, but it isn't the same thing I sense around Teal'c and Major Carter. It's like another spirit, but there's nothing there."

"Unless," Bakura interrupted, "it's in him."

Atemu stared aghast at Malik and they saw the first real sign of emotion; Malik smiled back at him.

&&&&&&&&

"So far, he's been unwilling to tell us anything," Daniel said as he stood in front of the collective parties of SG-1 and SG-M. "Most of the time, he'll just stare at us."

"But we have managed to translate a lot of the text in one of the libraries," Yugi added. The picture on the display board behind him and Daniel changed to a picture of one of the walls in the library. "It looks like the people there don't have books since all of the text is written on the walls."

"This section of the text tells how the native people traveled to this planet from Earth through the Stargate to escape terrible demons that were terrorizing humans."

"The Gou'ald," Hammond guessed.

"Probably," Yugi answered. "But it refers to humans as a separate species, meaning whoever's living there isn't human."

"If there _is_ anyone living there," O'Neill commented.

"Actually, there might be," Daniel said. The screen changed to another section of text. "This text says that the Gou'ald, or 'demons', were trying to hunt them, apparently so they could learn the secrets of being invisible."

"That sounds like the Nox," Carter said.

"It also says these beings can appear in three forms," Yugi went on. "They can be humanoid, invisible, or like a cloud."

"Which is now sounding like the Ancients," Daniel continued. "Except that the Ancients left Earth long before the Gou'ald showed up."

"What's interesting is that this refers to Earth as their 'birthplace' and then another planet as their 'homeland'. That means these beings didn't originate here."

"But they also don't refer to any of the planets we know of that went untouched by the Gou'ald. And they use the word 'Chappa'ai' for Stargate and 'Tau'ri' for Earth."

"It sounds like the Gou'ald have been driving them across the galaxy like a flock of sheep." The screen changed again and Yugi went on, "This says that in an effort to preserve their race, some of them stayed on Earth and the rest went to this planet to confuse the Gou'ald. It seems to have worked, because the Gou'ald didn't follow them. The beings remained in contact with Earth through the Antarctica Gate until very recently, when it was moved to Area 51."

"So even though the Gou'ald didn't know about the other Gate, these beings did?" Hammond asked.

"That's what it says. It also says that the force-shield Kaiba activated was a defense against the Gou'ald if they ever came through. It would activate if you didn't press the right set of symbols on one of the stones and you'd starve to death."

"But they never had to use it because soon after they left Earth, the Egyptians rebelled against Ra and the Egypt Gate was buried."

"After that, the Gou'ald gave up their hunt."

"The rest of the text looks like a normal history book. You know, names of kings, dates of important events, that sort of thing."

"There's no mention of any technology of any kind. Even the force-shield is referred to as 'magic', which is entirely possible I guess, though not very likely. There also isn't a record of any wars, meaning they probably didn't have any."

"Okay, now this sounds like the Nox," Jack said. "Peace loving, ability to make themselves invisible, no technology, yeah, sounds like the Nox."

"Do these beings have a name?" Hammond asked.

"The only reference in the text is to 'the People', which I'm assuming are the beings on P4C-791," Daniel answered. They were startled as Kaiba suddenly snickered.

"Looks like Eoin Colfer wasn't too far off," he muttered. He noticed the others' questioning stares and added defensively, "I'm an Artemis Fowl fan, all right? The elves and things like that are called 'the People' in those books. And Artemis was always one step ahead of them."

"And I'm sure you wish you were him with all his abilities to get the People's technology, like the iris-cams or something," Bakura said, catching the wondering looks on himself. He stared defensively back. "I like Artemis too, okay? I liked his attitude, and he was a pretty good thief."

Yugi shook his head with wonder. "Anyway, these 'People' are just the allies we need right now with the problems with Baal and the Replicators."

"The problem is, there was no one on that planet," Kaiba said from the sidelines.

"Yes there were," Bakura answered. "I could sense them everywhere. Remember that fog we were walking through and the fog that tried to keep us from getting back to Earth? That was them in the cloud form Yugi mentioned."

"Of course, the real question is, why did they try to keep us there?" Yugi, Kaiba, and Atemu through Yugi's eyes stared accusingly at Bakura. "What did you do, Bakura?"

"Why do you always assume it's _my_ fault?"

"Because it usually is," Kaiba and Yugi answered. Bakura groaned and brought the gold necklace out of his pocket.

"I was bored," he said as he dropped the gold on the table. "I steal when I'm bored."

"You know that stealing is a court marshalable offense," Hammond said.

"One, I'm not in the military, and two, I'm insane. You want me to stop stealing, send me to some correction facility. I'm not sure they'd believe the Stargate was a fantasy if I offered proof. Besides, I've already been told off for it," he added as an afterthought. They knew Ryou would have probably yelled at his yami for hours for stealing again.

The Bakura and Hammond stared at each other for a few moments; Bakura was to well known for blackmail-like threats that he could actually go through with for Hammond not to take him seriously.

"Maybe we should try talking to Malik again," Yugi said, breaking up the invisible fights going on around him. "He might be more willing to say something if he knows we know this stuff."

"Good idea," Hammond agreed. "Dismissed."

&&&&&&&&

This time, O'Neill and Teal'c accompanied Bakura and Yugi to interrogate Malik and they brought a Zat with them. Jack said the 'People' might be scared enough of Gou'ald weaponry that Malik might just tell them something useful.

It was obvious as soon as they entered the room that Malik could sense the Gou'ald larva Teal'c had once carried. He pressed himself flat against the wall as far from them as he could get, and the fear in his eyes grew as the Jaffa drew closer.

"Jaffa, get back!" he yelled. "I will reveal nothing!"

Teal'c paid no attention to the boy's cries and walked right up to the bars. "What is your name?"

"Demon! You will learn nothing from me!"

"What is your name?"

"I curse your family to hell!"

"What is your name?"

"Traitors! The Tau'ri are traitors to deal with demons!"

"What is your name?"

"I will not tell you, foul creature!"

Teal'c stared in silence at the fearful teen for five minutes without interruption until Malik said, "I will talk to no one but him." And he pointed at Bakura.

"Me?" the yami asked skeptically. He started forward, but Malik started screaming again.

"Not you! The other you! He is the only one I can trust!"

Bakura stared sadly at his friend and gave over control. Ryou started forward and stopped next to Teal'c.

"Will you tell me your name?"

"I am Dylan of the Golden Sea," he answered, resentment lacing his tone.

"Why am I the only one you'll talk to?" Ryou asked.

"Malik speaks highly of you and your spirit, but you did not steal from my world. I can only trust you."

"Why are you controlling him?"

"You stole the Necklace of Tilana from my world. I came to get it back, and to destroy the Stargate." He suddenly grinned and walked up to Ryou. "I cannot allow the demons to find my world. I must destroy the Chappa'ai to prevent that."

"There aren't any Gou'alds on Earth, Dylan," Yugi said quietly. The blonde's face became impassive again and he walked back to the bed.

"I will not speak with anyone but Ryou!" he exclaimed. "And I will not be treated like this!"

"Dylan, no one's going to hurt you," Ryou said calmly.

"Make them leave!"

"But–"

"I will not reveal anything more until they leave!" He proved his threat by turning around and facing the wall, which, Ryou thought, was a very childish thing to do. Ryou turned helplessly to the others.

"I guess you guys should leave," he said apologetically.

"And leave you alone with him? I don't think so," O'Neill answered.

"Colonel, we won't find out anything else if you don't leave. Besides, I won't be completely alone." He pointed to the Ring.

Jack sighed and headed towards the door. "Fine. Come on, kids."

However, as soon as the door closed, Ryou lifted the Ring from around his neck and placed it carefully on the floor, fully aware of how much trouble he'd be in later. Now completely alone, he turned back to his friend's body.

"It's just you and me now, Dylan. They're all gone, even Bakura."

Dylan turned back around, sadness now quite apparent on his face. "I'm sorry I yelled at your friends."

"I'm sure they're used to it by now."

The blonde teen shook his head and walked up to where Ryou was. "I really am sorry. I was just sensing evil and uncleanness everywhere while they were here. I couldn't stand it." He looked down at the body he inhabited. "I don't like this body very much. It's very different from mine."

"Yeah, about that, Yugi and Daniel translated some of the text from the walls of one of your libraries."

"They did?"

"Yes, but we didn't learn much except that your people were being hunted by the Gou'ald. I was wondering if you could tell me why."

Dylan stared intently into his eyes for a few moments and answered, "My race has the ability to make ourselves invisible. That is why the demons hunted us."

"Do you think you could show me?"

"No, I can only make myself– wait…liar!" Dylan's face became passive again and he ran back to the bed. "I thought I could trust you! You lied to me!"

"What? I didn't lie to you! I don't lie to anyone," Ryou said, slightly aghast that the other being was so perceptive.

"Liar! Go away!"

"Dylan, I–"

"Shut up. Leave me alone!"

Defeated, Ryou picked up the Ring and put it back on, wishing Dylan wouldn't be bothered so much by Bakura's presence; then they might actually get somewhere. As he turned to leave and tell the others that it was hopeless for the moment, Malik's voice spoke out.

"Ryou, wait! Don't leave me here!"

Ryou stopped halfway to the door but didn't turn around; he wasn't sure whether it was really Malik speaking. Subtly, he gave over control to Bakura, sure that the entity would be able to sense the change.

"Please, Ryou! I don't want to be alone with this thing!"

__

_Not the Dylan thing,_ Bakura thought quietly. Nevertheless, out loud he said, "Sorry, Malik. I guess you'll just have to deal." And then he started towards the door again.

"Bakura! Come on, Bakura, I'm your friend! You won't leave me alone, will you?!"

Malik's shouts fell on deaf ears as the ancient spirit left the room, telling the others that they should wait a while before coming back. As the door closed, Dylan took control again and sat quietly on his bed, gazing thoughtfully at the bars of his prison.

&&&&&&&&

{{Yadonushi, you're going to choke on your food if you keep eating like that.}} Bakura scolded through their mental link. He didn't have to, as both he and Atemu were manifested in reality as separate persons at the moment and were easily heard by anyone, but it was a habit that was hard to break.

{Iie, Yami, it's Jell-O. How could I choke on it?} Ryou answered, almost shoveling the blue gel into his mouth, edging on impoliteness. Bakura shook his head as he stared at the hikari and turned back to his own food. He didn't really need to eat, since he wasn't really alive, but it let him feel more human, and even spirits can get hungry sometimes. Across the table, Atemu was happily slurping his spaghetti, oblivious to everything else; the thief thought of kicking him under the table, but his foot collided with the metal pole that held up the table and that effectively stopped any further attacks. Yugi was just as oblivious as his yami as he feverishly worked on his own glass of Jell-O.

They'd agreed that, after about a day and a half of not eating, they were hungry and it was high time to eat something before someone fainted, that someone probably being Yugi, as he had the metabolism of a humming-bird. It was decided that they would discuss the situation with Malik, or 'that Dylan thing' as Bakura had deemed it, but at the moment, everyone was too busy eating to really discuss anything.

After a few moments, he poked Ryou in the shoulder, effectively stopping his eating. The hikari glanced up at him questioningly.

"Aren't you going to eat that?" he asked, pointing to the pile of red sauce on Bakura's plate that completely covered the small pile of spaghetti underneath.

"I'm worried," Bakura answered quietly. Atemu suddenly choked on his food and starting coughing painfully.

"You're _what?_" the pharaoh asked, still choking. Bakura never openly admitted his feelings like that if he could help it, and this was definitely one of those situations.

Bakura glared at him, wondering how long he would keep struggling with his food until he retreated. "I'm worried, Pharaoh. What's so funny about that?"

"I'm just surprised you said that, that's all."

"Why? Are you still living in that illusion that I'm only out for myself? 'Cause I never have been, ya know."

"Even during that game of Monster World…?"

"Didn't you listen to a thing I said five months ago? I've never–"

"Hey guys, can we get back to the problem at hand?" Yugi said, causing both spirits to glare at him for interrupting their argument. Atemu shrugged and grabbed a bowl of ice cream from the middle of the table; Yugi and Ryou stared incredulously as he tried to stab the half melted dessert with his fork. Bakura jabbed a spoon into his face and he took it with a scowl.

"I knew that. I was just testing you," Atemu said as he started eating the ice cream. "All right, we know Bakura's worried. Now, what are we going to _do_ about Malik?"

"Maybe if we just give Dylan the necklace, he'll leave peacefully," Ryou suggested, earning an extremely fierce glare from his yami.

"I think not," Bakura growled.

"Well, we have to something, thief, or we–"

"UNSCHEDULED OFFWORLD ACTIVATION! UNSCHEDULED OFFWORLD ACTIVATION!"

The four of them glanced at each other once and jumped up from the table, almost running into O'Neill and Teal'c on the way out of the cafeteria; Bakura sneaked back once and grabbed a bite of Ryou's Jell-O before said hikari dragged him out with them.

When they reached the control room, the Stargate had already activated, and the iris was closed; of course, no asked questions when they saw Bakura and Atemu as most of the personnel had seen them separate from the hikaris sometime in the last five months. Hammond was busy yelling into the microphone, probably at someone on the planet the Gate was open to.

"Yes, yes, I understand that, but until we're sure he isn't a threat–"

"THE ONLY THREAT DYLAN WILL CAUSE IS IF YOU DO NOT ALLOW HIM TO RETURN TO OUR PLANET!" exclaimed a voice over the PA system in the room. Atemu walked up to the general and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing the older man to jump.

"What's going on?" the pharaoh asked quietly.

"One of the beings from P4C-791 is demanding we allow Malik, or the thing possessing him, to return to the planet," Hammond answered tiredly.

"May I…?" Atemu waved his hand at the microphone and leaned down to it when Hammond nodded. "Hello? My name is Atemu. If we allowed Dylan to go back to your planet with the necklace, what then?"

"THEN YOU WILL HAVE NO PROBLEMS FROM US."

"Could our two peoples still have friendly relations?"

"THAT DEPENDS ON HOW SOON HE COMES BACK."

Bakura stepped forward and seized the microphone out of Atemu's hands. "And if he doesn't come back?"

The pharaoh glared at him and grabbed the microphone back as the amplified voice answered, "THAT WOULD BE SEEN AS AN ACTION OF WAR AND WOULD BE HANDLED AS SUCH." There was a pause like the voice was thinking. "WE WOULD BE FORCED TO SEND A BOMB THROUGH THE CHAPPA'AI TO DESTROY YOU."

With that, the Stargate shut down, leaving an ominous silence in its wake. Atemu placed the microphone down on one of the computers and stared silently out of the glass at the stone circle.

"So…now what?" Yugi asked quietly.

"We can't just let him leave," Bakura growled.

"I happen to agree with him, sir," Jack said from near the doorway. "This 'Dylan' knows to much about the SGC."

"And his abilities may be valuable in the fight against the Gou'ald," Teal'c added.

"We should try to talk to him again," Ryou suggested quietly. "And we should probably send that necklace back to the planet."

Bakura growled and frantically shook his head behind the general, but Hammond had already made up his mind.

"All right, we'll send the necklace back now and if this Dylan refuses to tell us anything, he can go back later," the general said, his tone sounding final and authoritative. The thief sigh and took the necklace out of Ryou's pocket, where he'd been carrying it around, making sure no one else stole it.

"I guess I should be the one to give it back," he muttered indignantly; Hammond only nodded his consent and ordered the sergeant to dial the Gate again.

Bakura entered the Gate room just as the Stargate activated; he walked slowly up the metal ramp and stuck his hand into the event horizon, ready to toss the necklace out the other side. But when he tried to pull his hand back, it seemed to be stuck; he could feel something clinging to it, trying to pull him through with increasing power. He struggled to pull his hand back for a bit, his attempts to return to his soul room unsuccessful, until he finally fell through. The Gate deactivated as soon as he'd completely vanished.

"NO! BAKURA!!!" Ryou exclaimed. He tried to get to the dialing computer to dial the planet again, but Yugi and Jack held on to him and stopped his progress. " BAKURA!!!"

"Ryou, calm down!" Yugi pleaded, amazingly holding his friend back without trouble.

"Let go of me! I need to get to Bakura! Please!" The white-haired boy sank to the ground in despair, finally giving up his struggles. "He can't get home; he doesn't have a GDO," he muttered into the hands. "And he apparently can't retreat to his soul room."

"Ryou, it's all right. I'm sure he'll be fine," Yugi said quietly, placing a hand on his friend's trembling shoulder. "General, can we send a GDO through the Stargate so Bakura can get home?"

"I'm afraid I can't authorize that," Hammond answered. "I'm sorry, Ryou."

Ryou suddenly jumped up, nearly hitting Yugi in several places. "Dylan! Dylan will know what happened!" And then he ran out of the room.

&&&&&&&&

"All right, Dylan! Out with it! Tell me everything!" Ryou exclaimed as he burst into the holding room. He charged right up to the bars of Dylan's cage and opened the Zat he was holding in one hand.

"You again? I don't want to talk to you, Ryou," Dylan answered. He turned around a faced the walk, thus proving that he didn't want to say anything more…and in a second was on the ground, clutching his sides in pain, courtesy of a blast of energy from Ryou's Zat gun.

"I think you should rethink that," Ryou snarled, pointing the Zat threateningly at Dylan. "Next shot kills." Neither of them noticed when O'Neill and Atemu entered the room until the pharaoh stepped forward and gently pushed Ryou's hand down so the Zat pointed at the floor, but the hikari just threw him off and aimed his weapon again. "Back off, Pharaoh! Let me deal with him how I want!"

"Ryou, this is not a good–"

"Pharaoh, I'm shooting you next if you don't back off!"

Atemu wisely decided to hang back and watch what would happen; he'd only seen Ryou this angry once but once was enough to know that he hadn't wanted to see it again. Ryou turned his attention back on Dylan, who was slowly struggling to his feet.

"All right, Dylan, why the hell would your people kidnap my yami?!" the hikari demanded. Dylan glared angrily at him, obviously wondering whether to answer or risk being shot again.

"It's because you haven't let me return to my planet yet," he answered reluctantly. "You see, I'm a prince on my world, next in line for the throne. Therefor, I'm extremely important to my people. Is that it?"

"And returning you to your people is the only way to get Bakura back?"

"Most likely. I'm sorry about Bakura."

"I'll bet," Ryou growled. He waved the Zat and went on, "Keep talking. You're not leaving until we learn the ins and outs about your people."

Dylan glanced around once before sighing and sinking to the ground. "All right. What do you want to know?"

"Hold on. Just like that you're going to tell us?" Atemu asked skeptically.

"Well, I don't really want to get shot by that thing again." Dylan gestured at the Zat in Ryou's hands. "And I can't believe my people would kidnap one of yours just to get me back, especially Bakura. Malik's told me a lot about him and they couldn't have picked a worse–"

"Okay, shut up and just answer my questions," Ryou threatened. "First off, I'd like to know what you really look like."

Dylan sighed and suddenly, a fog started seeping out through the bandages on his hand. Soon, Malik collapsed to the floor, and the fog collected to form a slender humanoid being about Ryou's height; he had fair skin and chin-length dark hair tucked behind pointed elf-like ears. His clothes consisted of a simple dark green tunic that was cinched at the waist with a length of gold rope, and a gold circlet sat on his head. Gauzy bluish insect-like wings sprouted from his back, complimenting eyes of close to the same color.

"This is what I really look like. I was able to enter Malik's body through that cut on his hand. My people are called Nymphs, though here on Earth, we're also called fairies, elves, things like that. I'm sure you already know that I could be either like this, in cloud form, or invisible, since I know you translated that much of the text from our libraries. It's hard to lie to a Nymph because we can read human's minds if we really concentrate."

"Then how come you didn't know I was lying about the translation at first?"

"Because your mind is different than most humans. It's more complicated and shielded from outside interference, no doubt as a result of Bakura's presence. Yugi's is like that, too, and right now I can't even touch Atemu's mind."

"Is that another reason the Gou'ald were hunting you?" Atemu asked, a bit surprised that the Nymph knew his name.

"Yes. The demons showed up thousands of years ago at our home planet, Eiru, and chased us around the galaxy. Every planet we tried to gate to seemed to just have more of them. When we finally arrived on Earth, we found out about the second Gate and decided to split up so the demons would get confused. Then shortly after my people left through the second Gate, the humans of Egypt revolted again Ra and the first Gate was buried. Since then, five representatives from around your world travel to the South Pole every three months to inform my world about how they are doing. Or, that was what happened until about eight years ago when the second Gate stopped working. We assumed the first Gate had been activated again, so my people stopped trying to contact your world. We thought the demons had returned to Earth so we didn't want to risk them finding us again."

"It said in the text that your technology is magic," Atemu said, his hand unconsciously fiddling with the Puzzle. "But the shields around your Gate didn't seem like magic."

"That's because the only magic you know is your Shadow Magic. My magic is different, lighter, more like that of the Nox–"

"You know the Nox?" Jack interrupted.

"Of course, our two peoples are related. That's why we can both turn invisible. But Nymphs can only make themselves invisible; I couldn't even make Malik invisible while I was possessing him. It just doesn't work that way. My people are also distantly related to the Ancients, that's where our other powers are from, but you probably already figured that out." He stepped forward as thought to lean against the bars of the prison, and then noticed the lasers blocking them. "Will you let me go now? There's not much else I can tell you."

"We'll have to ask–" Jack began.

"Yes. You can go now," Ryou answered. He swiped a card through a small box on the wall and the cage clicked open. "I'll accompany you so General Hammond knows what's going on."

&&&&&&&&

Hammond wasn't all that thrilled to send Dylan back, but he figured that if they didn't get Bakura back they'd have worse problems than a bomb coming through the Gate; Ryou would stay angry, and Anise and the rest of the Tok'ra would probably be just as upset. So after a few minutes of discussion, Ryou and Dylan stood in front of the shimmering event horizon, ready for the Nymph to go through.

"I hope our peoples can be friends, Ryou," Dylan said sincerely.

"Yeah, me, too," Ryou answered. He held out his hand and smiled. "As soon as Bakura comes back, that is."

"You love him, don't you. I can see it in your eyes."

"He's very special to me, yes."

"I'll make sure he comes back," Dylan promised, taking the teen's hand. He nodded once and stepped into the event horizon; Ryou stood watching the water-like barrier until it finally deactivated. It instantly started up again.

"Leave it open!" Ryou shouted as he jumped off of the ramp. The Gate _whooshed_ behind him and Bakura stepped through, follow by two Nymphs, a male and a female; both looked older than Dylan. With a gleeful cry, Ryou jumped back up onto the ramp and tightly embraced his yami, who immediately returned the gesture. The Nymphs behind them continued down the ramp to where Hammond was now standing.

"You must be General Hammond," said the male, holding out his hand towards the general. "My name is Aasir, and this is Rakia. I am whom you spoke with through the Chappa'ai."

"It's good to meet you," Hammond answered as he took Aasir's hand firmly. "I'm glad to see Bakura's alive and well."

"He was not easily subdued," Rakia said flatly. "But he did know he could not return to your world unless Dylan returned."

"His theft was a serious offense to our people," Aasir went on. "He stole the Necklace of Tilana, the first queen of the Nymphs on our planet."

"We felt inclined to punish him–"

"–But it became obvious that his detainment on our world was punishment enough."

"We feel that because Dylan and the Necklace were returned to us unharmed, we can have peaceful relations with your world," Rakia said.

"As long as none of your people steal from our world again," Aasir finished.

"I'm sure he's learned his lesson," Hammond agreed, staring pointedly at Bakura. Bakura shook his head and grinned over Ryou's hair.

"Nope, I'm still a thief. But I won't steal from your world again," he added, staring at Aasir. He let go of his hikari and led him down the ramp. "Now if everything's settled and done with, I believe it's time for dinner. Let's go Ryou."

Ryou smiled once and bowed briefly to the two Nymphs as he was dragged out of the room by his yami.

&&&&&&&&

Calai'di– Review!!!! Tell me how I did on this 'episode', if they were in character, that kind of thing. Oh yeah, and if you guys want me to continue with this season. Review, review, REVIEW!!!


	2. Welcome to the Real World

Calai'di–Oh my gosh! I'm actually updating this one!!! It's unbelievable how long this took to write! Hopefully the next episode won't tak nearly as long. Or be as dark….

Warnings: YAOI alert! I'm sorry, I didn't want to put it in, but it was necessary to this episode. Again, I'm sorry to anyone who hates it! (no, it's not Jack/Daniel people). Also, there are spoilers to season 8 of Stargate, some violence mentioned, angst, and overall confusion of characters. ;-) Much fun….

And thank you very much to Nachzes-Black Rider who has been beta-ing my fics! I am ever, _ever_ so grateful!

Note: This is set right after "Covenant" in season 8. And…well, you'll see my surprises…

* * *

__

Previously on Stargate SG-1: Daniel Jackson accidentally crossed into another reality via the quantum mirror, gaining insight into the future fate of his realm's Earth. The mirror was then taken to Area 51, though it still works. An alternate Samantha Carter and Charles Kawalski came to our realm, requesting assistance from an oncoming Goa'uld attack in their universe; General Hammond ordered the mirror destroyed. (summery courtesy of )

****

Episode 2: Welcome to the Real World

"All right guys, spread out and see what you can find," Malik ordered nearly as soon as the Gate shut down behind him. Almost instantly, flashlights flickered on to illuminate the dark chamber, revealing that there were now six people in the room. "And stop playing with those things, Pharaoh!" he called. Atemu glanced up from the DHD and smiled slyly.

"You want to get home, don't you?" he said, putting on a look of total innocence, before looking back to the DHD.

"One on these days, that isn't going to work on me," Malik muttered as he stalked by the dimly glowing pedestal. "Move out troops!"

"You've been waiting forever to say that, haven't you?" Bakura asked sardonically. Malik just grinned at him and ran off in the opposite direction, muttering something about "some sort of hieroglyphics I need to see". The white-haired yami smirked at his friend's diminishing back and swept the flashlight beam about, looking for anything that might hold his interest.

:Bakura, come here!:

The yami jumped slightly at the sound of Ryou's voice in his head and waved the flashlight around. ::Where are you?::

:The room to your left.:

Bakura turned into the nearest room to his left and found his hikari standing extremely close to what looked like a mirror. He held a small, rounded device in one hand and the other was reaching forward to touch the mirror….

__

_"Ryou! Don't touch that!"_ Bakura exclaimed both aloud and through their mind link. He dashed forward and grabbed Ryou's arm, which knocked the device he held to the ground, just as the boy touched the mirror. There was a small flash of light that surrounded them for an instant; Ryou pulled his hand away as though he'd been burned.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," he muttered, stepping back a bit. "But isn't odd how it doesn't catch our reflections?"

"Yeah…hii-yeh!" In one swift movement, Bakura pulled a cross out of his pocket with so much force that it nearly cracked Ryou's skull as he brought it down on the boy's forehead. Ryou stared indignantly at him.

:You've been reading _Hellsing_(1) again, haven't you?:

::…Yeah.::

"Well, I'll thank you not to do that again," Ryou growled as he pushed the cross away from his face. "I'm not a vampire yet, Bakura."

"It was worth a try," the spirit mumbled. "And if that's the case, this is a very strange mirror. But then, remember Miyu(1)–hey, where're you going?!"

Ryou poked his head back into the room from where he was standing in the hall. "I'm going to go see if Atemu knows anything about this." His head disappeared again and footsteps echoed as he walked down the hall.

Yet after about ten seconds, an alarmed cry was heard through the mind-link followed by a shout from down the hall. Bakura instantly dashed out of the room, not noticing that when he accidentally ran into a table, the action knocked a small device to the ground. The mirror's "reflection" instantly disappeared and turned black. The yami hurried to the room where the Gate stood and saw the reason for Ryou's distress instantly. There was no one there.

"Maybe they just went back to Earth to get something," Bakura suggested to try and calm Ryou down.

"Without us?"

"Well…"

"And the MALP's gone too."

"Yeah." Bakura had thought of the same thing, almost as soon as he'd seen the empty chamber. It was pretty strange that the team would go back through the Gate early, unless there really was noting there, and it was even weirder that'd take all traces of their existence with them. It just didn't seem right. "Maybe we should go back to Earth and check if everything's all right."

"Good idea." Ryou stepped forward and began dialing the Gate. As soon as the event horizon stabilized, Bakura typed in the numbers for their GDO code, and after a minute, they stepped through together.

* * *

"Incoming wormhole!" declared Sgt. Harriman (2) as the Stargate activated. General O'Neill(3) halted behind the sergeant as the iris slid shut; Carter and Daniel entered the room about a second later.

"Just Teal'c and SG-9 offworld, sir," Lt. Col. Carter(3) stated. O'Neill just grunted once and stared out of the glass at the active Gate.

"Receiving IDC, sir." A large number appeared on the computer screen, and Harriman had to look at it twice before he went on. "It's…SG-1."

"Hello," Daniel said in surprise.

"But Teal'c's not due back for a couple of days," Carter said.

Jack stared calculatingly at the Gate and sighed. "He must have gotten in trouble again. Open the iris."

The metal over the event horizon quietly slid open and not more than a second later, two boys stepped out. The members of SG-1 stared a the strange youths in shock; they were almost identical, except that one was obviously older by a few years, even down to the SG uniforms and stark while hair. The younger boy, presumably in his late teens, glanced bewilderedly at the airmen surrounding the Gate–the ones whose firearms were now pointed up at them– and then up at the control room.

"Gomennasai, General Hammond, are we late?" he asked, his voice betraying a slight British accent.

The members of SG-1 glanced at each other before O'Neill picked up the microphone and instead of answering, asked, "Who are you?"

"Colonel O'Neill? What do you mean?" The boy and his look-alike stared once at each other before the teen answered, "My name is Ryou and this is Bakura, a Tok'ra. Don't you recognize us?"

"Hikari, do you _have_ to tell _everyone_ I'm Tok'ra?" Bakura demanded quietly, though it sounded more like a complaint than a question.

"They should already know anyway, Yami-kun," Ryou whispered back. He stared up at the control room again, obviously waiting for an answer…but not the one he got.

"How did you get a GDO code?" O'Neill inquired.

Ryou stared quizzically at them and shrank back a bit into Bakura. "We're part of a team called SG-M that operates out of this base. We live here now. _That's_ how we have a code." He suddenly frowned and stared up at Bakura for a few moments, then looked around the Gate room again. "Didn't Yugi and the others come through before us?"

"Who?"

"Yugi, Pharaoh, Malik, and Kaiba, That's who," Bakura growled, quickly losing patience. "They're the other members of or team, Colonel. Now stop playing these dumb games and just tell us what's going on here?"

"Those names don't sound familiar," Carter commented up in the control room.

"And they keep calling Jack 'Colonel'," Daniel added.

They glanced back down at the teens; Bakura was hugging Ryou close and seemed to be reassuring him quietly.

"Take them to the holding rooms," Jack ordered.

* * *

"Listen, I already told you this! Why do I have to say it again?!" Ryou demanded angrily. The officer questioning him on the video seemed unfazed by this outburst.

"Why don't you just answer my question?"

"Fine." Ryou leaned back in his chair and glared straight up at the camera; then he began speaking as though to a small child. "My…name…is…Ryou. I'm part of a team called SG-M, which includes me, Bakura, Malik, Yugi, Atemu, and Kaiba. It operates out of this base and has been for the last five and a half months." He turned his gaze away from the camera and back to his questioner. "Ask Daniel-san or Samantha-san, surely they'll know who I am!" He looked like there was something else he wanted to say, but that something else never formed on his lips before O'Neill paused the tape.

He smirked and swiveled his chair to face the SG-1 members seated at the table. "'Daniel-san'?"

"It's a form of showing respect," Daniel answered in a slightly confused voice. "Anyway, I don't think he's lying, even though what he's saying doesn't make sense. I would like to to know how he got his hair like that though."

"Well, if he is telling the truth, it'll be easy enough to find out. We'll just ask Dad or Anise if they've ever heard of this 'Bakura'," Sam said simply, leaning back in her chair.

"Oh, do we have to call them?" Jack complained. "This length of silence has been rather…pleasurable." Carter shot him a look that plainly said "Don't diss my Dad, sir"; O'Neill sighed and tossed her a small device. "Fine. I'd like to know how they got here anyway." He turned back to the TV screen as Carter scurried off to an elevator and pressed the "Play" button on the remote. The image changed to that of the other boy, who was pacing back on forth in front of the table where his interrogator was sitting.

"I already told you I'm a Tok'ra and I work here. What the hell else do you need to know?" he growled softly. The sergent questioning him, the same one that interrogated Ryou, still looked unfazed.

"How about where you came from or how you got here?"

Bakura slammed his fists against the table and stared straight into the sergeant's eyes; rage and exasperation nearly radiated from his body. "I am not going to tell you this again! Ryou and I have already told you where we came from and how we got here at least _fifty times_ by now! Now would you please let one of us speak to Samantha?!"

"Sam's pretty popular offworld, isn't she?" Daniel commented as the tape paused again.

O'Neill shrugged and stood up. "Ah, the joys of being female: fame and prestige wherever you go. Why don't you go find out why they act like they know us personally?"

Daniel nodded and walked calmly out of the room, trying not to laugh.

* * *

:What do you think is wrong with them?: Ryou asked worriedly through their mind-link. He and Bakura were currently in separate holding rooms, and the only way to communicate was by thoughts.

::Didn't we read one like this?::

:Nothing like this, no.: A collective sigh was heard by both of them. :I wish they hadn't separated us.:

::It's not like it stopped anything.:: Ryou suddenly felt–or rather, sensed–Bakura's arms around him; he smiled, thinking about how the spirit must look at the moment.

:You'd better hope no one looks at the security cameras right now. I'll bet you look really silly.:

::Yeah, I bet I do.:: The laughed together at what SG-1's faces would look like if they saw Bakura's position at the moment.

After a minute, Ryou sighed and leaned back into his yami's presence. :We need to find Yugi. Maybe _he'll_ know what's going on.:

::Well, judging by their reactions, Yugi isn't here. Or any of our team for that matter.::

Ryou gasped quietly. :But that means they'd be back in Japan! We can't get there!:

::Yes, we can. Just a second.::

Bakura's presence disappeared and a moment later, Bakura appeared next to Ryou with the Ring glowing slightly. They embraced quickly before either spoke again.

"How do we get there?" Ryou asked into Bakura's hair.

"I'll show you," the yami answered, pulling away slightly. "_Do not_ let go of my hand."

Ryou nodded vigorously and grabbed his other's hand; instantly, a dark fog materialized around them, shifting and dancing subtly. The teen gripped Bakura's arm tightly and they began to walk forward steadily; Bakura seemed to be perfectly aware of where he was going. It seemed to Ryou that the longer they walked, the more the shadows pressed in on them and the colder it got, until after what he thought was an hour, he collapsed, almost taking Bakura down with him.

"Hikari, we need to keep going," Bakura admonished softly as he tried to pull Ryou to his feet. "Come on, we're not even halfway there yet."

Ryou smiled weakly at this. "I thought…you didn't…like…Yugi."

"I don't," the yami growled. He squatted down, facing away from Ryou. "Climb onto my back. I'll carry you." Ryou smiled again and crawled up onto his yami's back, falling asleep almost instantly. Bakura sighed and stood up again; he'd known that travel through the Shadow Realm might be too much on his hikari, but it was kind of pleasant to feel his warmth on his back. He kept walking through the darkness for hours upon hours until he finally stopped and set Ryou down by his feet, making sure to keep a tight hold on his hand. The Ring ceased its glow and the shadows disappeared.

"Ryou, wake up, we're here," Bakura murmured, prodding the boy lightly. Ryou groaned softly and rolled over, almost onto Bakura's lap.

"Where…are we, Yami-kun?"

"We're in–"

"What are you doing in my room?!"

They looked up to see Yugi and Yami standing in the doorway, both with identical expressions of horror and shock. Ryou instantly bounced to his feet and ran forward to embrace his friend, but Yugi shrank back as though from fire and buried his face into Yami's chest, whimpering. Bakura pulled his own hikari to him and regarded Yami with a curious expression.

"Pharaoh," the thief said calmly.

"Spirit," Yami answered extremely coldly. Yugi looked up and whimpered again, obviously stricken with fear.

"Yugi, what's wrong?" Ryou asked anxiously, causing Yugi to shrink back again.

The small boy's eyes shut tight and his fear was explained in two words: "You're dead."

* * *

"Daniel, where did they go?" Jack demanded as they ran into each other in the hall. The general had been heading to the holding rooms where Ryou and Bakura were supposed to be, though according to the security tapes, they weren't there anymore. Daniel shrugged and looked suitably admonished.

"According to the guards, they just disappeared into thin air."

"Asgard?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Baal?"

"No–"

"The Tollan?"

"I doubt it. Listen, Jack, if we have two aliens walking around with knowledge of this base and abilities like that, we could be in serious trouble."

Jack stared at him dubiously. "Then we need to find them."

"See, that's the problem. They aren't anywhere in the base."

They walked in awkward silence for a few stepped before Jack sighed audibly and went on, "So, we'll send a couple teams to search the mountain and surrounding area for them. They can't have gone that far."

* * *

Ryou and Bakura stared at Yugi with eyes so large they rivaled his. This was not what they had expected to hear. "You've gone missing" or "You tried to kill me yesterday" maybe, but not "You're dead".

"I think you're confused, Yugi. I'm not dead. I'm standing right here," Ryou said quietly. Yugi looked again and shook his head.

"You're dead, Ryou. You and Bakura are dead. I saw both of your bodies and…and…" He choked and began sobbing into Yami's shirt.

"Shhh, it's okay, Yugi. Don't worry, I'll sort out everything–"

"Why won't you stop haunting me?!" Yugi demanded, glaring at the intruders. "Why won't you just leave me alone and go on in peace?!"

"Yugi, I'm–"

"Just go away! You got what you wanted, Ryou, so take Bakura and just leave!"

The white-haired boys shared identical looks of confusion as Yami went on, "You found your yami, Ryou. You can be together now, so leave us alone."

"Yami, I really don't know what you're talking about," Ryou declared calmly.

"You–_hic_–you killed yourself," Yugi cried. "You and Bakura."

"What? Why would we do that?"

"We don't know," Yami stated stiffly. "I told you that you should have let me banish the thief, but you wouldn't listen. You said 'he won't hurt anyone, Yami. He loves me'. I still didn't think it was good idea, yet I believed you. And for a while, you were right. He didn't hurt anyone."

"But then–_hic_–well, he never was very stable. I think you told me he was on medication because he was bipolar or–_hic_–something. But one night he must have not taken it. He went crazy, Ryou! Even you couldn't stop him. He invited most of our friends to some warehouse downtown and–_hic_–and…Honda, Anzu, Shizuka, Mokuba, Grampa, Malik, Otogi, and Isis were killed that night. And then he shot himself."

Ryou felt Bakura's arms tighten around him at this, but he was close to crying himself and didn't mind.

Yami picked up the narrative. "After that, everyone was depressed, but you most of all. Yugi managed to convince you not to do anything, but he couldn't convince everyone. Jonouchi was stricken by both his sister and Honda's deaths, and Kaiba was the same with Mokuba. Kaiba invited Jonouchi to his mansion and they died holding each other."

They would have laughed at this under different circumstances, but tears were already sliding down Ryou's cheeks.

"It was too much for you, Ryou," Yugi sobbed. "You started withdrawing into yourself, and you wouldn't talk to me anymore until one day you didn't show up at school. Yami and I even skipped part of school just to make sure you were all right, but–_hic_–but we were too late. There–_hic_–there was a note on the door that said you couldn't stand being alone anymore. That you were going to join Bakura and be with him forever." He stared pleadingly up at his friend. "Yami and I are the only one's left, Ryou! We're the only ones the gods felt should live! It's not fair!" he screamed, his voice muffled by Yami's chest again.

"Wait, let me see if I heard you right," Bakura said. "I went berserk and killed most of your friends, and then myself, so then Kaiba and the mutt killed themselves, and then Ryou because he loved me?"

"That's an extremely blunt way of putting it, yes," Yami answered coldly.

"I'm sorry, Yugi," Ryou whispered. The boy stared up at him, confused, and Ryou continued, "You shouldn't have gone through all that because of us. But you still have Yami, and he still has you, so you're extremely lucky. Just think, one or both of you might have died ages ago, but you didn't. Even Bakura was never able to hurt you!"

"Ryou, this is not a laughing matter," Yami and Bakura admonished simultaneously.

"I'm not suggesting it should be. But Yugi–let me go, Yami-kun–Yugi, listen." Ryou stepped forward and took his friend by the shoulders. "I know you're sad and hurt, but it wasn't your fault at all. And I'm sorry if Bakura and I hurt you. But you should be glad Yami is still with you, and glad that your friends are happy, too."

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked, sniffling slightly.

"Well, think about it. Bakura and I are together, Honda and Otogi still get to chase after Shizuka, and don't you think there might be a reason Jonouchi and Kaiba died holding each other? Besides having themselves, Kaiba also has Mokuba, and Jonouchi has his sister."

Yugi turned his gaze to stare at the floor. "Anzu doesn't have anyone. And neither does Grampa."

"Actually, Anzu does. Listen, I know it'll hurt to hear this, but Anzu and Malik had a crush on each other for a long time. They both told me. And your Grandfather can watch over you and Yami all the time now, not just when you're around him."

:Yami-kun, we should leave soon. Yugi doesn't need to be reminded of anything like that for any longer.:

::Yeah, as soon as you want to. I wanted to leave five minutes ago, but I know you didn't.::

"Listen, Yugi." Ryou got to his knees and stared up at his friend. Taking the boy's hands in his own, he went on, "You're not alone. Your friends are always here for you, if not in body than in spirit. 'Cause you know what we all have besides the ones we love?"

"What?"

"We have the hope that you'll keep living your life until the time when you were destined to die, years and years from now. That you won't let any of this stop you from living, especially since you have Yami and no reason to die. If you don't, you'll hurt all of us, maybe even more than Bakura did."

A tear trailed down Yugi's cheek, but he nodded and smiled. "You're right, Ryou. Thank you."

Ryou smiled as well and stood up, returning to Bakura's side. "You'll be okay, Yugi. You'll see. And I'll probably stop haunting you now. It was your own doubt that caused it in the first place."

"Thank you, Ryou," Yami said, hugging Yugi tightly.

:Now, Bakura.:

"Have fun with Yami, Yugi," Ryou answered. He grabbed Bakura's hand, and they disappeared.

The two spiky-haired teens glanced at each other once, decided to take their friend's advice to heart, and kissed passionately.

* * *

"That was pathetic, Hikari," Bakura growled as they walked through the Shadow Realm. Ryou smiled and leaned against his yami.

"Yeah, but it made Yugi feel better. Atemu, too, I bet. And–" he glanced up at the spirit– "me, too."

"How much of what you guys said about us was true?"

"Everything."

Bakura glanced down at his hikari and suddenly stopped, turning away from him. "Climb onto my back, Ryou."

"I'm not tired, Yami-kun."

"But you will be. And…I want you there anyway."

The hikari grinned and almost knocked Bakura over as he leapt onto his yami's back. "I'm not too heavy?"

"I carried you here, didn't I? And you'd better not fall asleep for a couple of hours, if at all."

"How come?"

Bakura wrapped his arms under Ryou's legs, holding him up, and started off into the darkness again. "Because silence isn't at all fun to play with, my little slave."

Realization struck Ryou hard and he was suddenly struggling to get free. "Let go of me, Bakura!"

"I think not," Bakura answered, chuckling darkly. "You won't get away from me that easily."

"I am _not_ your slave, of any kind!"

"Ryou, stop struggling! I was kidding, all right! You don't want to get lost in the Shadow Realm, do you?"

"N-n-n-oooo." Ryou tried and failed to stifle a large yawn. Bakura chuckled again.

"You are tired. Go to sleep, Hikari."

"O-okay." Ryou relaxed as he yawned again and laid his head on his yami's shoulder. But after a few minutes, he spoke again: "I-it's kinda scary…what Yugi told us…I-I mean, I'm not dead, and neither a-a-are you…."

"No, we're not…." Bakura answered in a slightly subdued tone.

"Bakura…you don't…really have bipolar, do you?"

The yami remained silent, choosing to look at a spot on the ground slightly to his left instead.

Ryou shot straight up with shock, now very alert. "Why didn't you tell me?! And how do you know or get pills for it in the first place?!"

"I…I went to a psychologist when you were at school once, and he had me take a lot of tests and then he told me I had it. I got pills when you were at school, too. So it was the last time we were in Domino, and I only got enough to last a few months." He blushed slightly and stared at his feet. "I didn't tell you 'cause I thought you'd over-react."

Ryou sighed and hugged his yami tightly. "You know you can tell me anything, Bakura. I don't really want you killing everyone either. Do Anise or Selmac know?"

"No."

"Malik?"

"No."

"Um…how long before your medication runs out?"

"A week and a half."

They walked in uncomfortable silence for a few minute, each boy thinking about what could happen. Finally, Ryou spoke up again. "When we get back to the SGC, I'll ask Samantha-san if there's any place is Colorado Springs that'll give you more medicine. Or maybe we can ask someone back home, like Jonouchi or Isis, to get it or–"

"Ryou, Yugi just said they were all killed."

"Yeah, but remember, he also said we're dead, too, and we know that's not true. I don't think we're really on Earth."

"Then where would we be? Back on that planet with that weird mirror?"

"Yeah, you know, I bet it trapped us, like in 'Mirror, Mirror'."

::You've been reading 'Miyu' way too much.::

:I try.:

::Well stop. It's disturbing.::

:So is your lack of appreciation for it.:

"Whoa, 'Carter', too many big words," Bakura complained, imitating O'Neill playfully.

Ryou giggled and hugged Bakura again. "I love you."

"I know," Bakura answered. Ryou stared at him in what could have been shock until the yami sighed and went on, "Fine! I love you, too. Happy?"

Ryou smiled and relaxed again. "Very. Let's get home, Bakura."

* * *

"Incoming wormhole!" Harriman declared. After a few moments he added, "It's the Tok'ra, sir."

"About time! Open the iris!" O'Neill declared as he dashed out of the room. He emerged about a minute later, followed by Daniel and Carter, in the Gate room just as Anise, Jacob, and Malek(4) stepped out of the Stargate. Sam dashed up to her father, her eyes filled with extreme urgency.

"I'm so glad you're here! We have a problem."

"And here I thought you just wanted to see your old man," Jacob said jokingly. "What is it?"

"We'll explain in the briefing room, Dad," Carter answered, glaring slightly at Jack.

* * *

"I have heard of this 'Bakura'," Anise said quietly back up in the briefing room. This was the first comment any of the Tok'ra operatives had made after Sam, Jack, and Daniel had explained the situation.

"You have?" Sam and Jack asked simultaneously.

"Yes, though only in Tok'ra legend. Bakura supposedly killed the host of Aasir, one of our last operatives on Earth, and was then possessed by him. But after that he drops out of history. There is no other mention of him."

"What's interesting is that this happened three thousand years ago," Selmac added.

"So either he found a sarcophagus or it's not really Bakura," Daniel concluded bluntly.

"I do not know why he would even claim to be Tok'ra," Malek spat. "Bakura was the host, and Aasir would have died years ago."

They were spared further comment when, near the stairs, the air suddenly seemed to shift as though from heat, and Bakura appeared with a sleeping Ryou on his back. At first he looked slightly disoriented, but, gazing around the room, his gaze fell on the other occupants, so he placed Ryou gently down on the floor and bowed respectfully.

"Anise," he greeted, "Selmac, Malek."

It was painfully obvious, however, that they were extremely taken aback by this greeting, and the surprise was very apparent on their faces. Bakura desperately looked back and forth between them.

"Please don't tell me you don't recognize me either!"

"What is your name?" Selmac asked.

"Bakura, host to Aasir of Memphis," Bakura answered dejectedly, noting a slight change in Malek's expression.

"How old are you?"

"Three thousand, twenty-three years(5). You should already know–"

"Unh…."

Ryou suddenly stirred and sat up, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Yami-kun, let's not do that again. I hate traveling through the Shadow Realm."

"Don't diss what you don't know," Bakura admonished quietly, but Ryou barely heard him as he had already noticed the other occupants of the room. Instantly, he was on his feet, bowing deeply to the Tok'ra.

"Lady Anise, it's so good to see you again. Maybe you can tell us what's going on."

"Who are you?" Anise asked, looking notably confused by the greeting.

Ryou's expression fell considerably and he spoke to Bakura again. "They don't know us either, do they?"

"I don't think so."

The teen dropped to the ground in desperation. "What is going on here?"

"Ryou, calm down, we'll figure it out," Bakura said as he sat down beside his hikari. Pulling Ryou into a hug, he went on, "What did Miyu do to get out of the mirror?"

"Well, Larva had another mirror and–"

"Wait, did you say something about a mirror?" Carter asked, a smile forming on her lips.

"Yeah, there was this mirror on P4X-759, and Ryou touched it, and now everything is all screwed up."

"Let me guess, the mirror didn't catch your reflections either?" Daniel went on, also seeming to catch on.

"Yeah, how did you…?"

Carter smiled and looked triumphantly at Jack, closely copied back Daniel, who also knew what had happened; Jack, however, looked as clueless as ever.

"Carter, don't look at me like that. I know you're going to go into one of your 'scientific rants' that I won't understand."

"It's another Quantum Mirror," Sam and Daniel said at the same time.

Jack shook his head. "Oh no, Hammond had it destroyed, remember?"

"Then maybe it's a different one," Carter answered. "It makes sense, sir. Isn't it odd that everything was different only _after_ they touched a mirror? In whatever reality they come from, they probably _are_ part of the SGC, and I bet we knew them quite well."

"Well, from the reality we're from, you're still a Major and engaged to Kaiba, and Jack's still a Colonel and Freya's been hitting on him like crazy," Ryou muttered, causing both Jack and Anise to blush.

"Definitely different," Jack murmured.

"Oh yeah," Sam agreed, also blushing.

"So we're in a different reality?" Bakura asked.

"I guess that's why Yugi thought we were dead," Ryou said quietly. "In this reality, we are."

"Well, that explains why you haven't gone through temporal entropic cascade failure(6) yet," Sam commented, shivering slightly.

"Temperate tropic what?"

"Temporal entropic cascade failure. Basically, it's when two of the same person are in the same reality and–"

"It's painful and ugly to watch," Jack interrupted, giving Carter a 'look'. "That's all you need to know."

"Sorry, sir."

"So, can you show us the symbols?" Jack asked. When both Ryou and Bakura nodded, he started walking out of the room, saying, "All right, come on then."

* * *

Ryou and Bakura stood nervously before the event horizon of the Gate, smiling as Daniel asked one more question.

"So, how _did_ you get your hair like that?"

"It's natural," the boys answered simultaneously.

Ryou held up a hand to stop Daniel's next comment. "Ah, it's weird, I know. But you get used to it after a while."

"So I guess this'll be the last time we'll see you?"

"Well, since we're supposed to be dead in this reality, yeah. But Yugi's still around, so you might give him a call. He could really help you."

"We'll see." Daniel smiled and the two boys walked into the event horizon.

---Wormhole Sequence---

"All right, come on, Ryou!" Bakura ordered as soon as the exited the Gate. They ran down the hall and into the room with the mirror; Ryou almost tripped on the control device as they entered.

"Okay, Daniel-san said to touch the mirror a–" Ryou stopped, staring bewilderedly at the darkened glass. "Yami-kun, did you do that?"

"Do wha–uh, oh." Bakura had just noticed the mirror himself. "Uh, no?" He leaned down, picked up the device on the floor, and pushed a button on the top; the mirror's "reflection" suddenly appeared. "There, all fixed."

"That's not where we came from," Ryou announced, effectively stopping Bakura's hand, which had been reaching for the mirror.

"What do you mean? Of course it is."

"No, 'cause right before I touched the mirror, you knocked a device like that out of my hands. It should be on the floor right next to the mirror."

They stared at the mirror, but there was no device on the reflected floor.

"That's probably not good," Bakura muttered, turning the device in his hand over and over. "Maybe we should dial Earth again and ask Daniel?"

"Wouldn't you rather figure it out yourself?" Ryou asked knowingly, giving his yami a curious look.

"I'd rather get out of this reality as soon as possible," Bakura answered as he headed into the hall. "It's creepy thinking that I'm a walking ghost."

"You are anyway, Yami-kun," Ryou giggled, and he joined Bakura out in the hall.

* * *

"Hello! What are you doing back here?" Jack asked as soon as the boys stepped out of the Stargate. "I thought Daniel sent you on your merry way back home."

"He did, but–" Bakura held up the device in his hand– "we have a slight problem."

* * *

"So, you see, when we turned it back on–"

"It didn't come on with your reality," Daniel finished for him. Ryou nodded from across the table and gave him a questioning look. "Oh, it's kind us happened to us before, too. I'll have to show you how it works; it's hard to explain if you don't actually have the Mirror in front of you."

"Fine with me," Bakura grumbled as he stood up from his chair. "I just want to get out of this screwed up reality."

"Well, if anyone can help you, it's Daniel," Jack announced. He patted Daniel on the back and pushed him towards the stairs. "I have complete confidence in your abilities, Danny-boy."

Ryou and Bakura sweatdropped as they followed. "Great, now he's imitating Pegasus."

* * *

But almost as soon as they stepped out of the wormhole, Bakura fell to his knees, clutching his head in pain.

"Shut up, just shut up…" he muttered angrily.

"Bakura? What's wrong?" Ryou tried to lean down to help, but his yami pushed him away and stood back up, shaking his head.

"I'm fine, don't worry," he said, trying to smile at Ryou. "But we need to get back to our reality as soon as possible."

Ryou looked confused, but he shrugged and started dragging Bakura toward the hallway. "Come on, then." They began running for the room with the mirror, only to collide with an invisible wall, sending them flying backwards. Bakura staggered to his feet, pulling Ryou up with him, as deep laughter filled the room.

"Who's there?" Daniel called, looking cautiously around them. The laughing resumed and a body appeared right behind him, pulling him into a headlock. The new figure was rather tall with dark, ear-length hair and dark eyes, and he was wearing normal looking Earth clothes. (7)

"Hello, all!" the figure said in a Goa'uld voice. He brought out a Zat and held it up to Daniel's throat. "You won't be getting out that way!"

"Who are you?" Bakura asked disdainfully.

"I am Setiundbakracalaidianac, but you can call me Bob," the Goa'uld answered, waving the Zat around a bit. When he noticed their disbelieving looks, he added, "Hey, I don't like that stupid Tau'ri name either, all right? But at least it's better than saying 'Setiundbakracalaidianac' over and over, ya know?"

"This is different," Ryou muttered, shrinking up against Bakura. The yami only nodded and gestured for Bob to continue.

"I'm here 'cause Baal wants one o' you SGC people in his possession, and I just _happen_ to be the only minor Goa'uld working for him that actually _has_ a stealth-device," Bob said, still waving his Zat around. Ryou was beginning to wonder whether this man was actually stable.

"How…how did you get…on Earth?" Daniel asked, having to gasp as Bob's arm was wrapped around his neck fairly tightly.

"Pah, you Tau'ri people don't check your incoming guests very well," the Goa'uld answered. "I came with Camulus and the other idiots–Baal's pretty mad about your deceivin' him and Camulus like that, by the way, Danny-boy."

Bakura leaned back, haughtily regarding the Goa'uld. "So you came through the Gate with us just now, activated the force-shield, and we're now waiting for Baal to show up, correct?"

"Yep. You're a smart one, Bakura. How come you never joined us?"

"You…you know about Baal?" Daniel asked.

"Daniel: yes, we know about that bastard. But we weren't stupid enough to let Camulus go. And you: I didn't join you baka ahous because I knew you were gonna get your asses kicked in the end. I prefer the winning side, thank you."

"B-bakura?" Ryou asked, hesitantly tugging on the yami's sleeve. This wasn't like the Bakura he'd known for the past few months; this was the Bakura from before Stargate Command, before Battle City even, the Bakura that should have been long gone.

"What, yadonushi?" the yami spat, still glaring at Bob.

"Um…nothing." Ryou winced and closed his eyes, bowing his head respectfully. "Never mind, Bakura-san."

"Good." Bakura turned his attention back to Bob and Daniel, both of whom were staring at him questioningly. Ryou took the chance to carefully search his dark's pockets, having to draw his hand back when Bakura started walking toward the Goa'uld. But the hikari had found what he'd been searching for.

"H-hey, stay back," Bob ordered, though he began backing up away from Bakura. "I'll shoot him if you come closer."

"Yeah, that's why you haven't done it yet," Bakura scoffed. He drew a blood-red knife out of his pocket and twirled it delicately with his fingers. "Why don't you let Daniel go now?"

"Nope, sorry, he's a prisoner of Baal."

"Whatever." The yami suddenly lunged forward, sinking his knife into the Goa'uld's shoulder; Bob screamed and tossed Daniel away from the blood now spilling to the floor.

"You'll pay for that, shol'va," he growled, pressing his hand against the wound.

Bakura just regarded him casually, licking some of the man's blood off of his knife. "Would I really be considered a traitor if I was never with you in the first place?"

"All Tok'ra are shol'va."

"Ah, but I'm not a Tok'ra," Bakura protested softly. He abruptly rushed forward, plunging his knife into the Goa'uld's neck. "I'm just the host."

Ryou stared sadly as Bob's body slid to the floor, and he let a small bottle clatter to the ground. "No, Bakura-san–" with this, he jumped up onto his yami's back and forced a small pill into Bakura's mouth– "I'm the host here." Bakura struggled to throw Ryou off, but when that didn't work he threw himself backward to the ground, crushing the hikari's small body under him. Ryou yelped in pain but let go, smiling a little since his yami had already swallowed the pill.

"Baka yadonushi, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Bakura exclaimed as he shoved Ryou further into the ground.

"I…I…"

"Are you trying to poison me or something?!"

"Iie, Bakura…"

"Hey, uh, Bakura, Ryou…" Daniel started, but one sharp look from the yami quickly silenced him.

Bakura stared back at the hikari pinned beneath him. "What were you trying to do, ahou?!"

"I was…helping…you," Ryou gasped. He struggled a bit and managed to point at the pill bottle still lying on the floor. Bakura stepped over to it and picked it up, staring incredulously at the writing on the bottle.

"Lithium? Why the hell would I need–" The yami unexpectedly fell to his knees, blinking rapidly, and stared again at the bottle. "Ryou, are you all right?"

"Are you okay, Bakura?" Ryou asked, painfully propping himself up on one of his elbows to look at his yami.

"I am now. Thank you, Hikari." Bakura crawled back over to Ryou and got him onto his back again. "I'm sorry I hurt you. I can't control it when I'm like that."

"It's okay, Yami-kun. It wasn't your fault."

"Hey, guys?" Daniel called, startling them; they'd forgotten he was there. "Maybe we should get you back now."

"Good idea," they answered together. Bakura walked over to Bob, tucked the Zat into his pocket, and pressed a jewel on the Goa'uld's ribbon-device to disable the shields. "Let's go," he ordered, heading straight for the room with the Mirror; Daniel followed a bit confusedly.

Once they got to the mirror, Bakura handed the control device to Daniel and pointed at the mirror. "We don't want to go there."

"He means, 'could you help us set it back to our reality, please?'" Ryou said, glaring at his yami.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant."

"Okay, Ryou, could you help me?" Daniel asked as he began to fiddle with the device. Ryou nodded and slid to the floor to watch what the archaeologist was doing.

"How does it work?" he asked.

"Well, you're supposed to do this–" Daniel placed his thumb and index finger on the top of the controller as if he was holding a switch and moved them slightly; the imaged on the Mirror changed with a flash– "and it changes the reality. But you have to do it really carefully or it can go too far. Do you want to try?"

"Sure." Ryou took the device and copied Daniel's actions, though he barely moved his fingers at all. He stared thoughtfully at the new image and changed it again. "In our reality, the control device like this was on the floor in front of the mirror. But the room looked just like this one otherwise."

"Okay, so this reality isn't too far off from yours," Daniel said, referring to the image on the mirror.

"You guys might want to hurry up," Bakura interjected as he stared out of the room down the hall. "We've got company."

"Jaffa?"

"And they don't seem to be very happy about Bob's death," the yami affirmed.

"Can you do anything to stop them from getting in here?" Daniel asked since he didn't have any weapons with him.

"I have a Zat and my deck. I think I can hold them off for a while." Bakura briefly smirked back at them and pulled his deck out of his pocket. "You just find our reality," he ordered as he selected a couple of cards. "I summon Headless Knight and Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams!"

Daniel stared at the newly appeared monsters with extreme interest but Ryou caught his attention again.

"Daniel-san, will you hold this please?"

Ryou handed the controller to the older man and touched the mirror, instantly transferring to the image. He seemed to look around a bit, the touched the mirror on his side and reappeared beside Daniel. "Sorry, not the right one. Close though."

"Have you got our reality yet?" Bakura demanded. His voice was muffled by sounds of staff weapon shots hitting a golden barrier in the doorway.

"Almost, Bakura!" The image changed once more and now, not only was there a control device on the floor in the reflection, but Yugi and Malik were walking throughout the reflected room, silently calling for someone. "Found it!" Ryou announced, handing the controller to Daniel, and he touched the mirror to appear in the reflected room.

"About time." Bakura stepped backwards toward Daniel, pulling a fist-sized metal ball, a shock-grenade out of his pocket. He gave the grenade and his Zat to Daniel, asking, "Do you know how to use one of these things?"

"A shock-grenade? Yeah…"

"Good. As soon as I touch the mirror, that shield's going to disappear. I hope you don't get killed." Bakura smiled and reached for the mirror. "Good luck, Daniel."

* * *

"Bakura!" Yugi exclaimed as he jumped on the yami. Bakura managed to steer himself away from the mirror enough that he didn't touch it when he fell backwards from Yugi's hug. "We were so worried about you and Ryou!"

"Well…get off of me!" Bakura shoved the smaller boy away from him and pushed himself to his feet, only to be attacked by his own hikari. "Ryou!"

"You scared me, Bakura! Don't do that ever again!" Ryou cried into his yami's hair.

"Then we need to get back to Earth as soon as possible so you can ask Samantha about that, huh?"

"Yeah." The hikari drew back slightly. "Will you carry me, Bakura? You really gave me a beating back there."

"Fine, get on." Bakura smirked at Malik and Yugi's astonished expressions as Ryou climbed onto his back. "What? We went through a lot, all right?"

"Whatever," Malik said. He began walking out of the room, smiling slightly at the spirit. "Come on, Kaiba's been worried sick."

"Yeah, right," Bakura answered as he and Yugi followed their friend to the Gate.

* * *

"SG-M, you're nearly four hours overdue," Hammond announced as they stepped out of the event horizon. SG-1 was also waiting at the bottom of the ramp, and a couple of technicians were preparing a MALP to go through the Gate.

"General, you have no _idea_ how good it is to see you all," Bakura stated as he approached the group.

"What do mean? What happened?"

"Later. We'll tell you later," Bakura answered sleepily; he hadn't slept in about two days after all. "Right now, I need to rest." But Ryou had already slid of his back and was now walking determinedly toward Major Carter.

"Samantha-san, I have something I need to talk with you about."

* * *

_1) Hellsing_ and _Vampire Princess Miyu_ are two very good manga series, both somewhat, if not all, about vampires, and are definitely not owned by me.  
2) Sgt. Walter Harriman is that guy who, in later the later seasons, says "Chevron one encoded, chevron two encoded…" and so on. He's kind of dorky, wears glasses, and looks a lot like Siler (though not nearly as accident prone)  
3) In season 8, O'Neill was promoted to the rank of General, and Carter was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel. In this story, season 8 is practically nonexistent in Bakura's reality, probably because the Yugioh gang is there.  
4) Yay, I found the correct spelling for Malek's name! Now I can distinguish between the Tok'ra and Malik.  
5) Yeah, 3023 give or take. I figured that out from things I've heard about the manga. I've read that 'Kura was about eight when Kuru Eruna was destroyed, and it was about fifteen years later that he got sealed in the Ring. 81523 then 30003023.  
6) Temporal entropic cascade failure happens when two of the same person are in the same reality. The intruder's molecular structure begins to break down and decay until he or she ceases to exist. It's also extremely painful and looks a bit like what happened to Yami Malik (face-wise). I swear to this day he was going through TECF. (see episode "Point of View" for more specific details)  
7) Hee hee, anyone recognize him (Nachzes, this means you)? Seth from _Holy Crusade_ has made his first guest appearance! Not sure if I like him as a Tau'ri/Goa'uld guy or a lecherous god better….  
Oh, and his name means something like "under Seth and dark in life as the thief". 


	3. Life Force

Calai'di: Welcome to chap three, my Pendragon and Vampire Game chapter (neither of which I own). That should be all the spoilers right there. Enjoy! (and hurrah! for the rest of season eight!)

Oh, and there is a fair amount of cursing, but with Bakura and Malik in the same room, what else would you expect?

Thanks to Nachzes for beat-ing this for me, even though her dad was being a prick and she had to work on it at school. She's so good to me!

* * *

****

Episode 3: Life Force

__

"Are you sure everything will be all right?"

"Of course, General. I'll make sure of it."

"We'll inform you as soon as Major Carter can help you."

"Thank you. I'm sure we'll be fine, but it is appreciated, Hammond-san."

"Bakura, are you all right?" Ryou asked, poking his yami in the ribs. Bakura looked up abruptly, turning his eyes from where he'd been staring dazedly at the shimmering event horizon.

"Hmm? What?"

Ryou smiled and shook his head. "You're holding everyone up. Come on, Yami-kun, you can't be that worried. I'll be here for you."

Smiling back at him, Bakura nodded and stared determinedly back at the Gate again. "I know. I'm just a little nervous that Samantha is still looking for somewhere to get my medicine from."

Ryou squeezed his hand reassuringly. "It's just a standard recon. We won't even be gone long enough for it to matter."

"I'm sure you're right," Bakura answered, smiling. He squeezed Ryou's hand back and entered the Stargate.

----_Wormhole Sequence…_----

The Stargate on the new planet was located on a relatively tall platform standing high above the ground with stairs leading down to ground level. A safe distance away stood the DHD. All around the Stargate were buildings; it seemed to be standing in the middle of a small village square, the center of all attention. Far off in the distance, a ways from the village, was a mountain range with a city of lights about halfway up the tallest peak. Dark clouds covered the skies as if rain was expected.

"This is a cheery place," Kaiba muttered as they descended down the steps. Atemu nodded silently and headed for the DHD–he seemed to be addicted to them–but Malik grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Sorry, Pharaoh, not this time," Malik said, pulling him away from the dialer. "You can figure it out later. I'm fed up with pulling you away from that thing."

"But...you want to get–"

"Nope, not working this time. I told you it wouldn't someday. Besides, you should already know how that thing works."

"Yeah, I guess I do..." Atemu muttered, allowing Malik to pull him away from the DHD. Malik smirked at him, pleased that, for once, he had won an argument, and he was about to start berating the Pharaoh about it when he ran into Bakura and sent them both crashing to the ground.

"Malik! What the hell?!" Bakura exclaimed as he landed heavily on his shoulder. Ryou scurried to help him to his feet, while Yugi did the same for Malik, and all the while the two being helped were yelling at each other at the top of their lungs.

"That fucking hurt, you bastard! What–"

"Why the hell were just fucking standing there?! If I–"

"–the hell were you looking at?! Obviously–"

"–didn't fear Ryou's wrath so much, I'd–"

"–not where you where you were going!"

"–kick your ass right now!"

"Oh, bring on, tough guy!"

"You'd want that, wouldn't you, bas–"

"Guys, knock it off!" Yugi ordered, stepping between them to stop any fights that could happen. "You two are best friends! Please don't fight! Please?" he asked pleadingly, staring up at Malik. Behind them, next to Kaiba, Atemu glared at Malik and turned away to look around the town.

Malik smiled slightly down at Yugi, then glared at Bakura and answered loudly, "Then what was he just standing there for?"

"You moron." Bakura rolled his eyes and pointed behind him to the town square. "For your information, _tomb keeper_, I was looking at _that_."

Malik turned his gaze to where the thief was pointing and gasped quietly; roughly a hundred people had gathered in the plaza and were now down on their hands and knees in neat rows on the ground behind the DHD. Atemu stepped forward a bit, slightly aghast, and gazed out over the crowd.

"Hello?" he called uncertainly.

"WELCOME, OH GREAT ONES!" answered the people in unison in a language incredibly similar to Japanese. The Pharaoh glanced back at them and shrugged, not sure what to do in this situation. He didn't mind the greeting, of course, but he hadn't been in these circumstances for a long time, and had never dealt with it all that well.

Kaiba smirked at Atemu's lost expression and stepped forward himself, raising his arms high above his head in a 'V'. "Thank you for this grand welcome! We are honored! See? It's simple," he added in an undertone to Atemu.

"What world is this that we have come to?" Malik added loudly, following Kaiba's example. They were both comfortable in a situation like this.

A blonde man in the front row answered without looking up, "This world is called Quillan, my lord. This town is La Naan, and the city in the mountains is Pheliosta."

"Who are you? Stand up and tell me," Kaiba ordered. The man stood up without shaking and bowed deeply, one of his hands waving subtly behind his back.

"My name is Vord, Great One," he answered as the rest of the villagers slowly got up and began to leave the plaza. "I am the leader of this town."

Kaiba nodded curtly and turned to the rest of the team. "See? It's easy to order people around."

"They probably think we're Gou'alds or something," Bakura said with near disgust, "with us coming through the Chappa'ai and all."

"Yes, they'd think that with you _using the language_," Ryou berated kindly. Bakura childishly stuck out his tongue in response.

"They don't look like they're all that advanced," Atemu spoke up as he looked over the town. The shock had fallen away and now he was ready to do his job. "It's amazing how similar their language is to Japanese. And yet they don't look anything close."

"Yeah, maybe we should ask about that," Malik said. "Yo, Vord!" The man in question looked up with confusion. "Yeah, you. Come here!"

Vord slowly made his way past the DHD, after looking about nervously, and up to the stairs of the Stargate platform. "You called for me, my lord?."

"All right, stop! No more of this 'my lord' and 'great ones' stuff," Malik ordered. He pointed to each of the members of his team and introduced them, saying afterwards, "We are not Goa'ulds, got it? Actually, Bakura here might get kind of mad if you call him that. Anyway, we're explorers and we've come to learn about your planet and your people–"

"Ah, now may not be a good time," Vord answered, looking both frightened and confused. He glanced back at the mountains and went on, "It's almost time for the Collection, and you should not be here for that. In fact, we were preparing for it when you arrived."

"What's this 'Collection'?" Atemu asked, not missing the look Vord had given the mountain. It had been straight at Pheliosta.

Vord sighed and shook his head. "No, no, it is not something to speak about with guests. Come, we must get to know each other better. We shall go to The Red Dragon." He began to walk off toward a street that led out of the square, not seeming to care whether his 'guests' followed or not. But they did follow, Atemu in front since he was the most eager to learn about these people.

"Bakura, this is really weird," Ryou whispered as they set off, once Vord was out of earshot. "I've heard all these names before, I just don't know where."

"Vampire Game," Bakura answered quickly. "Pheliosta is the kingdom that Ishtar rules over; La Naan is where Vord is from."

Ryou's eyes widened as he stared after Vord. "He looks just like the Vord in the manga! But that's not possible!"

Bakura shrugged and kept walking, lost in thought. It had really been just by chance that he had found the manga called 'Vampire Game'; he'd just been searching for books about vampires at the library and it had popped up. But once he'd read it, he'd gotten hooked, and he remembered everything that had happened very clearly. The man in front of them did look a great deal like Prince Vord; Bakura half expected to see Seiliez walking down the street dressed like a girl, the two looked so much alike. But those were characters in a manga; the similarities had to be just coincidence.

* * *

"Hobey-ho, Vord!" called a teen from behind the bar counter as they entered _The Red Dragon_. "Who have we got here?"

"Hobey-ho, Spader," answered Vord tiredly. He led the members of SG-M to the counter and sat down on one of the stools.

"Long day already?" Spader asked while Vord counted the Earthlings, then counted them again and again.

"Yeah–were there not six of you that came through the Chappa'ai?" the blonde asked.

Spader's eyes grew wide and he bowed to SG-M. "The Chappa'ai! You must be–"

"Say 'gods' and I'll kill you," Bakura growled, looking him over with narrowed eyes. The teen called Spader looked more Japanese than any other person they'd seen, with his shoulder-length black hair and almond shaped black eyes, but he had an accent similar to Australian.

"There were six of us," Atemu said to Vord, "but the other two had to go back through the Stargate to check in with our General." In truth, Ryou and Yugi had returned to their soul rooms, but the Pharaoh obviously could say that.

Bakura sat down heavily on a stool next to Vord and looked behind the counter. "So, got any vodka here?"

"Bakura!" Atemu admonished.

"Nah, he's got a good point," Malik said as he took a seat next to the thief. "I've been itching for a good Bloody Mary since we got to the SGC."

"That was over half a year ago!"

"Yeah, and I've been wanting one for over half a year. At least in Domino there were some pretty good bars–"

"Malik, you're working for the military now! You can't be drinking!"

"I agree with Malik on this one, Atemu."

"Kaiba!"

While they argued, Vord and Spader stared at them like they were aliens–which they were–until the former looked away and lightly rapped his knuckles on the table.

"Five sniggers, please, Spader," he ordered. The black-haired teen nodded dumbly and began filling glasses with the blood red drink.

"Did they really come through the Chappa'ai, Vord?" he asked quietly.

The blonde nodded as he was handed a glass. "I saw it myself. To tell the truth, they acted like gods at first, but then that one–" he pointed to Malik– "told me that they are really humans from a world called Earth, or Tau'ri–"

"They're from Tau'ri?!" Spader exclaimed. He handed Bakura and Malik each a glass of the sniggers after they stared at him questioningly. He went on more quietly, "But this is great! The prophecy could be fulfilled!"

"Yes, but it is bad luck for them to arrive at the time of Collection." Vord glanced at Bakura once and continued, "There is no way they will not be Chosen if they are here. You know what Lord Duzell's tastes are like."

"There's a tum-tigger, then," Spader agreed. Then, noticing Bakura's look of surprise and pleasure at the sniggers, he added, "Spiff, isn't it, Snow-Hair?"

"My name is Bakura," the thief growled in response, "and what is this stuff? It's great!"

"Sniggers," Spader answered. "Which one of you is the leader?" When Malik raised his hand, he went on, "You should leave Quillan and never come back."

"What?!" Atemu exclaimed.

"Uh, why?" Malik asked.

"It's almost time for Collection. You shouldn't be here–"

"All right, what is this 'Collection'?" Kaiba asked impatiently. Spader stared at him nervously and wrung him hands.

"I'm not sure if it's something to discuss. It's a real natty-do."

"Discuss it _anyway_."

"Um, well..." The black haired teen glanced around apprehensively and leaned over the bar so he could whisper, "Th-the Collection is when, each year, the leaders of Pheliosta come to La Naan and pick out twenty sacrifices to take back to the city." He grimaced and looked away. "We're not sure what happens to the Chosen, but they never come back. There are a couple other town that give sacrifices as well." He turned his gaze back on Kaiba, eyes cold as ice. "It's not something we usually discuss with strangers, especially around this time."

"The Collection is tomorrow, so you four should leave," Vord added quietly. "I cannot be sure you would not be Chosen if you are still here."

* * *

"All right, Yami, explain to me _again_ why we're staying here?" Yugi asked exasperatedly. "Especially when there's a good chance we'll be _sacrificed_ tomorrow if we don't leave?" He flopped heavily onto the bed in the room they were staying in over night. The room was next to two others that the rest of the team was staying in, which were all part of the inn above The Red Dragon tavern, curtsey of Spader.

Atemu smiled and sat down lightly next to his hikari. "Because General Hammond believes that we can still learn from these people. Besides, we can be gone before the Collection thing tomorrow and come back later."

"Hmph, we could do that now, I think." The hikari stood up and headed toward the door, stopping just before it with his hand on the doorknob. "I'm worried, Yami."

"About tomorrow?" Yugi nodded. "It'll be fine, Yugi; we'll be out of here before anything happens."

"Yeah, but I'm still worried," Yugi muttered as he pushed open the door. _Especially about Bakura._ "I'm going to go talk to Ryou and Malik for a bit."

Atemu visibly grimaced slightly at Malik's name but let his hikari go anyway. Yugi crept down the hall to Ryou and Bakura's closed door and knocked quietly, hoping he wasn't interrupting anything; you never knew with the two white-haired teens. After a few moments, he heard an irritated sounding "come in," so he hesitantly opened the door and stepped inside. Ryou was sleeping peacefully on the bed, seemingly unfazed by the knocking, and Bakura stood passively at the window, staring out toward the mountains and Pheliosta.

"Um, Bakura?" Yugi said quietly, not wanting to set the yami off. He did anyway.

"What?"

"A-are you all right. I mean, you been kinda quiet–"

"I'm fine!" Bakura growled, glaring harshly at the smaller duelist. Yugi fell silent and walked cautiously over to the bed where he sat down at Ryou's feet. The yami turned back to stare in silence out the window again, and it was a few moments before either of them said anything.

"I'm sorry that Major Carter hasn't been able to help you, Bakura," Yugi murmured. The thief barely moved to acknowledge that he'd heard. Yugi went on, "I wish it could be different. Everyone's worried about you, even if they don't know. Especially Ryou."

Bakura was silent for a few more moments before answering, "They're going to lock me up, Yugi." He turned away from the window to look at his own hikari. "If I don't have any medicine, I won't be able to control what I do, so they're going to lock me up in that iso room where I was before. I mean, I guess I don't want to hurt anyone, but Ryou would be trapped with me, too. And I don't really want to hurt him, Yugi."

"Um, does Malik know about this?"

"No."

"He should know, Bakura."

"What?!" Bakura stared at him like he was nuts. "Are you crazy?! It's bad enough that you know, that _anyone_ knows; I don't need to tell anyone else!"

"But _Malik_ needs to know! He's the leader–"

"I don't fucking care!" Bakura yelled angrily. Yugi heard a small moan from Ryou and knew that he had been woken up, but the spirit didn't notice. "Listen, Yugi, I didn't even want _Ryou_ to know, but the fucking circumstances didn't allow for my wishes! Why would I want anyone else to know? So I'll thank you to leave me alone about it and mind your own fucking business, got it?"

Yugi nodded timidly and made a move to get up, but was stopped when a pale hand wrapped around his wrist.

"Yugi, wait outside, please," Ryou murmured as he sat up. Yugi nodded and quickly stepped out of the room to leave the two white-haired ones alone. "Bakura..." He slowly got up and walked over to his yami. "Please don't worry, 'Kura. Samantha-san will find somewhere and everything will be okay, you'll see."

"Whatever," Bakura muttered, looking away from his hikari.

"But...I also believe Malik needs to know–"

"Why?"

"Just in case...something does go wrong, he can be prepared. Please, Bakura? I don't want anything bad to happen."

The spirit glared out the window at Pheliosta, not answering.

"Please…."

"Fine." Bakura turned his gaze onto his hikari. "But absolutely _no one_ else, got it?"

"Thank you!" Ryou chirped. He quickly hugged Bakura and ran out the door to tell Yugi. The spirit smiled slightly after him and turned back to stare out the window again.

* * *

"Now listen," Spader was saying as he pushed them out of the tavern. He'd been trying to get SG-M to leave all morning, but now, with the sun high in the sky, he was beginning to lose patience. "the Collection begins at midday, so you had better leave now. The sun's nearly there!"

Malik glanced at the sky and began Bakura in the direction of the Stargate. "Yup, you're absolutely right, Spader! Thanks for the drinks! Let's go team!" He'd been properly disturbed when Yugi and Ryou had told him the previous night about Bakura's problem, and, being the spirit's best friend, he was determined to keep Bakura out of harm as best he could. Hell, he'd help Carter look for a supplier full time if he had to.

"What's up with him?" Kaiba quietly asked Atemu. The Pharaoh shrugged and followed Malik and Bakura.

As they walked through the town toward the Stargate, they saw more and more people coming out of their houses, also headed in the same direction, and every one of them appeared to be frightened. When the team finally reached the DHD, almost all of the towns people had gathered in the square and were staring north towards the mountains.

"All right, dial it up, Pharaoh!" Malik ordered. Atemu nodded curtly and ran off to the DHD to start dialing in the symbols. Bakura glanced impatiently at the sky, then at the mountains, then back again about every three seconds, and he began to look more and more worried each time.

"Hey, uh, Kaiba," Atemu said worriedly after about a minute. All of his teammates stared at him. "Could you come check that I got the symbols right?"

"What's wrong?" Malik demanded as Kaiba hurried over to help. The Pharaoh ignored him while Kaiba checked the symbols that were lit up, muttering to the other duelist about the problem the whole time.

"You've got them right; try it again," Kaiba answered. The Pharaoh placed his hand on the crimson jewel in the middle of the DHD; it lit up for a moment before the whole panel fizzled and died.

"It didn't work a–"

"What the hell is going on, Pharaoh?" Bakura demanded, losing his patience.

"The, uh, the Gate won't activate."

"What?!" The thief pushed him aside and quickly tried to activate the Gate himself; it didn't work, of course. He stepped back in near disgust and horror. "What the hell?!"

"Why isn't the Gate working?" Yugi exclaimed as he materialized momentarily. Atemu placed a comforting hand on his shoulder to calm him, even though he himself was also freaking out inside.

"It's okay, Yugi, we can figure it out–"

"I know what's wrong," Kaiba spoke up.

"What?"

"There's another Gate already active on this planet."

"What are you talking about?" Malik asked, bewildered. "There can't be another Gate."

"Earth had two. And when the Russians were using their Gate, the SGC couldn't dial out. That's probably happening here. That, or one of the crystals might have burned out," he added, shrugging.

"You mean someone's trying to keep–"

"The leaders of Pheliosta have arrived!" shouted someone from the front of the crowd. The Earthlings glanced worriedly at each other then over the crowd to the street leading to Pheliosta.

A short distance from the crowd stood two figures, both with flamingly illuminated pale hair that was waving slightly in the wind and long, royal looking robes. The man on the left had silver hair that fell to slightly past his waist and blood red eyes that were looking arrogantly over the crowd. The robes he wore were the same color as his eyes with snatches of black and gold here and there and his partner's were black with red and gold. The black robed man's hair only fell to his shoulders and was a blonde so pale that it almost looked white, but one could tell that it wasn't, and his eyes like blue ice stared, not at the crowd, but straight at SG-M.

This man elbowed his partner after a few moments and began whispering, nodding once toward the four Tau'ri, and soon both of them were staring at the Earthlings, whispering quietly back and forth. Blue-eyes nodded once curtly and they started forward, stopping just in front of the La Naans.

"Good afternoon, people of La Naan!" he called cheerily. Bakura almost shuttered; this guy's gaze hadn't wavered since he'd arrived and it was becoming unnerving. Plus, he was acting far too polite for any self-respecting bad guy. "It's good to see you haven't forgotten our little agreement! Good for you!"

"This guy is messed up," Bakura heard Malik whisper. "Just messed up." Wondering what the blonde was talking about, he followed Malik's gaze to see that the red-eyed man was staring at him with and almost hungered expression, licking his lips occasionally. His gaze didn't waver even when he whispered something irately to blue-eyes.

The second man glared at his partner briefly, but nodded curtly and returned to staring at Bakura. "Well, Duzie's getting impatient, so we'll start the Collection now!" he called, finally pulling his gaze away.

It was amazing how obediently still the people of La Naan were as the two Pheliostans walked among them, picking out some one every now and then. A person who had been Chosen left the crowd and soon there seemed to be two specific groups, depending on who had chosen them. Atemu was saddened to see that Spader soon stood in the blue-eyed man's group of Chosen. But as the two men reached the end of the crowd, only eighteen people were among the unlucky.

"Didn't Spader say twenty people were Chosen?" Atemu asked quietly as the two men approached. The closer they got, the more one could tell why the La Naans were so obedient; the two men may look no older than twenty-six, but they exuded a presence that said they weren't to be messed with.

"He did," Bakura answered worriedly. "I have a feeling these guys aren't done yet."

The two Pheliostans stopped in front of SG-M, or more specifically, in front of Malik and Bakura, and the blue-eyed one bowed slightly. "Hello, nice to meet you all. I don't believe we've had the pleasure before."

"You haven't," Bakura answered acidly. "We're not from around here. And we we're planning on staying much longer."

"What a pity." The man smiled gently. "My name is Saint Dane, and my friend here is Duzell. We are the leaders of Pheliosta, the city in the mountains."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Atemu said just as bitterly as Bakura. He did not like where this was going.

Duzell smirked and grabbed one of Malik's hands to kiss it 'Prince Charming' style. "What's your name, beautiful?"

Malik glared at him and wrenched his hand away. "Malik," he answered stiffly.

"And you?" Saint Dane asked Bakura. The spirit remained silent, causing Saint Dane to laugh. "Come now, if we're all going to be friends, we have to know your name. I don't want to call you 'ivory-hair' the whole time you live in Pheliosta."

"What?! You're taking him?" Atemu exclaimed.

Duzell smiled and grabbed Malik's hand again. "We're taking both of them. There's nothing you can do about it."

"But we're not even from around here!"

"No, you're from Tau'ri," Saint Dane said, surprising everyone.

"You didn't tell me that!" Duzell whispered irately.

"It wasn't important until now," Saint Dane answered. Then to Atemu, he said, "So, you see, we_ can_ take them, and will."

"It's part of the prophecy," Duzell added.

"Prophecy? What prophecy?" Bakura asked as Saint Dane grabbed his hand to pull him away.

Saint Dane smiled and pulled him closer. "The prophecy that says _'There will come a time when four travelers shall arrive through the ring of standing water from beyond the stars and the world called Tau'ri. These travelers will be young and easily subdued. Two shall be taken to the city of Pheliosta as part of the Payment and they will remain there to serve the leaders forever'_–" he smirked and lifted Bakura's chin to stare into his eyes– "as our slaves."

Bakura stayed silent for a few moments before smiling himself. "Oh, _that_ prophecy. There are so many to remember, you know. Hey, Pharaoh, isn't there another part to that one–you know, that part that says the good guys win–"

"You are mine," Saint Dane interrupted angrily. "Anyone on this planet at the time of Collection is ours for the taking, and as you are here, you are too. And you have been Chosen." And hand strayed to play with a lock of Bakura's hair. "So I'm afraid your insolence could result in quite a bit of pain and unpleasantness for both of you."

After glaring at him for a few moments, the spirit looked away and whispered grudgingly, "Bakura."

"What?"

"My name is Bakura, all right?" he answered angrily. "That's what you wanted to know."

Saint Dane smiled at Duzell, who was having a few problems holding onto Malik. "See? I knew he'd come around!"

"Great, could you help me please?" Duzell asked as Malik tried biting his hand to get him to let go.

The blue-eyed one nodded. "Malik, if you don't cooperate, I'll kill Bakura here. I know you don't want that." Malik stopped struggling and stared at him in fear. No he didn't want that. "The same goes for you, Bakura. We'll kill Malik if you resist."

"What if we both do?" the thief answered slyly.

"We'll kill your friends here. Wouldn't want to waste two perfectly good slaves like that." Saint Dane smiled and started pulling Bakura away. "Are we ready to go now?" The two Chosen Tau'ri nodded dumbly and obediently followed their 'masters', wishing there was a way out of this, especially Malik since Duzell kept giving him very hungry-seeming looks.

"No! Please Malik!" Yugi exclaimed as he took control.

"I'm sorry, Yugi," Malik muttered sadly as he was pulled after Duzell.

"Malik!" Kaiba had to hold Yugi back when the boy tried to run after his friend. "Malik, please! Malik!"

Malik glanced back at him and tried to smile reassuringly, but Duzell only pulled on him harder as they walked through the crowd.

"Aw, missing your boyfriend already, slave?" he teased. He easily caught Malik's attack, meaning that now he held both of the blonde's arms.

"Yugi's not my boyfriend, just a friend," Malik hissed. Duzell smirked and pulled him off again to join Saint Dane and Bakura at the front of the crowd.

"We thank you for your continuing support!" Saint Dane called out. "We'll see you next year!" He smiled and waved good-naturedly, then pulled Bakura off in the direction of Pheliosta with the Chosen and then Malik and Duzell in tail.

"It's going to take hours to get all the way to your city by foot," Bakura muttered bitterly. Saint Dane smirked and led him a few more meters before stopping abruptly.

"Hey, Duzie, what do you think? Maybe...eight people?"

"Maybe just six, to be sure," Duzell answered from the back of the group; though he was staring at Malik too much to really care.

Saint Dane nodded and ushered six of his chosen into a small group right in the center of the street. "Now, stay tight together so you don't lose anything," he was saying, "and don't go running off when you get there; you won't get far, trust me." He stepped back a bit and pressed the crimson jewel on his broach. Several naquadah rings shot up from the ground around the six La Naans, stacking under one another, and beamed them away in a flash of light before sinking into the ground again. Both Bakura and Malik were in shock; Bakura because he knew exactly what had happened, and Malik because he didn't.

"You have a ring transporter?!" Bakura exclaimed out of shock.

"This was a Goa'uld occupied world at one time; didn't you know that?" Saint Dane answered, both amused and surprised by the reaction.

"Why else would the La Naans use the language occasionally?" Duzell added, still staring at Malik.

Saint Dane seemed to notice this and hissed, "Duzell, you have nine other Chosen to feed on. Give the poor boy a break."

"'Feed on'?!" Bakura and Malik exclaimed as Duzell glared angrily at his partner.

"I'll explain later," Saint Dane said quickly. He turned to the rest of the Chosen, saying, "So, who's up next?"

After just a few minutes, all of the Chosen had been sent to Pheliosta via the Rings, so Saint Dane sent themselves and they collected up the Chosen and started off toward the castle where the leaders lived. The city of Pheliosta was very different than La Naan; the sky was covered with clouds, completely blocking out the sun, giving everything a darker appearance. The buildings stood tall and foreboding above the pitch black alleys and shadowed streets that ran between them. And as the whole city was dark, so were the being that populated it; the few that dared to walk the streets during the day had gathered at the ring transporter to see the new arrivals, and every on was staring at the Chosen with the same hungry expression that Duzell had.

"Hey, uh, what's with them, Saint Dane?" Bakura asked almost nervously. "Everyone looks like they want to eat us."

The man shrugged. "They probably do."

"What?! You can't be serious!" Saint Dane just smiled in response. "You mean you brought us here just to be eaten?! Like mere cattle?!"

Saint Dane suddenly stopped and bruisingly pulled the spirit extremely close, staring intently at him. "Listen, I know you may not be used to the idea, but _you are a slave_ now. To _me_. Therefor, you will do what I tell you to, when I tell you, without protest, even if it means being eaten or ripped limb from limb. Got it?"

"I understand, 'master'," Bakura said with a slight grimace. "I'm just a bit worried that my time in this life is about to be cut short _by a bunch of bloodthirsty cannibals_!"

"We're not cannibals," Saint Dane answered in disgust. "Bloodthirsty, maybe, but we do not eat our own kind unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Tch, I am your own kind–"

"You are not, trust me."

"But–"

"You are a slave now, Bakura," Saint Dane interrupted. One of his hands raised to play with Bakura's hair absentmindedly. "And there are certain duties that my slaves are expected to perform. You, for instance, are going to be a bleeder and a pleasure slave–"

"Like hell I'll do that!" Bakura spat as he tried to get free of Saint Dane. "There's no fucking way I'll be a pleasure slave, especially not to _you_!"

"Do you even know what that is?" the blue-eyed ones asked with amusement.

"Yes, I used to own one," the thief answered automatically. "But I'm _not_ going to be one for you!" Saint Dane was still staring at him with amusement, so he added, "What?"

"Well, it's just interesting to think that you would have owned a pleasure slave. That would mean you have experience."

"And like hell are you going to find out how much," Bakura hissed.

"Hey, um, Saint Dane?" Malik spoke up. Both the man in question and Bakura stared at him with surprise, as both had forgotten he was still there.

"What?" Saint Dane and Duzell asked.

"What is a 'bleeder'?"

Duzell smiled evilly and suddenly bit down on Malik's neck, sucking greedily at the blood that flowed out. Saint Dane rolled his eyes as he watched and gave an exasperated sigh, before tugging Duzell away from Malik. The blonde fell to his knees and hesitantly placed a hand on the wound on his neck, eyes wide with fear. Bakura dropped down to try and comfort his best friend, though his eyes were closed and he was muttering under his breath about something or other.

"Don't scare him like that," Saint Dane hissed quietly to his partner.

"He asked a question, so I answered it," Duzell whispered back. "I was hungry, Dane."

"I don't care; he'll be frightened stiff of you now. I thought you didn't want that."

Duzell shrugged and turned his attention back on the two Tau'ri. "It's all right, Malik; I didn't take that much. We need to get back home."

Malik slowly raised his head to look at Duzell and whimpered, burying his face in Bakura's chest again. The thief himself was staring at Saint Dane with a newfound sense of respect, though he still really hated the being.

"You're all vampires," he said, tone level.

"Yup, about time you realized it," the blue-eyed demon answered, fangs flashing as he grinned.

"What have we gotten into, Malik?" Bakura murmured. "Vampires."

* * *

"Seto! We can't just leave them!" Yugi exclaimed angrily, his voice resonating throughout the tavern. Kaiba clamped a hand over the smaller duelist's mouth and tried his best to smile at the other people to get them to mind their own business.

"Shhh, do you want the Pheliostans to hear you?" Kaiba demanded, taking his hand away.

"But we _can't_ leave them!" Yugi protested a little quieter. "O'Neill-san wouldn't stand for it! 'We don't leave our people behind', remember?"

"Of course I remember; a whole week of training was spent drilling that into our heads," Kaiba answered exasperatedly. "I didn't suggest that."

"Well, your way isn't much better," Yugi muttered. Kaiba had suggested, only a few minutes earlier, that they should go back to the SGC, explain everything that happened, and maybe come back to rescue Malik, Bakura, and Ryou. To Yugi, even sitting in this bar was too much waiting, much less going all the way back to Earth.

"We can't do anything–"

"We have Zats, guns, C-4, and a staff weapon, not to mention the Puzzle. We can do a lot of things."

Kaiba leaned back in his chair and regarded Yugi calmly over the table. "We can't do anything until we know what we're dealing with, Yugi. Sorry."

Yugi pouted slightly, but at that moment, a villager dashed into the bar, yelling, "Come quickly! The Chappa'ai has been activated once more!"

Yugi and Kaiba glanced once at each other before jumping up and running out of the bar, not stopping until they reached the foot of the Gate platform. The Stargate disengaged as they stopped, and standing in front of it, looking out over the crowd, was Major Carter.

"Hey guys!" she greeted once she'd spotted them. She dashed down the stepped into Kaiba's waiting arms and kissed him briefly. "Hi, Seto."

"What are you doing here, Sam?" Kaiba asked, lightly nuzzling her neck. Yugi blushed slightly while he watched, but he hadn't really expected anything different. Sam and Kaiba had been engaged for a couple of months, since they got along perfectly and it wasn't outlawed by their positions. Jack had been extremely jealous when he'd heard.

"I have something I need to give to Bakura," she answered, looking around. "He's not here? Or Malik?"

"Yeah, uh, they couldn't come to meet you," Yugi fibbed quickly, trying his hardest not to stared at the ground. "They were busy."

"Oh." She shrugged and tossed him a small bottle. "Give this to him then, next time you see him."

"What is it?" Kaiba asked.

Yugi looked briefly down at the label before grinning at her. "You found it?"

"I found it. Tell him he owes me one."

"He'll be so happy! Not about the owing you thing, though." Yugi carefully placed the bottle in his pocket and frowned slightly, thinking about the current situation the yami was in.

"What's wrong, Yugi?" Sam asked.

"Well..." Yugi sighed, deciding to tell the truth. "You see, we kind of got into trouble."

"What happened? Does it have something to do with you guys not coming back this morning?"

"Yeah. So it might take a little while to get this to Bakura," Yugi said, patting his pocket. "But we'll be okay! No problem at all!"

Sam smiled at him. "You're starting to remind me of the Colonel, Yugi."

"I-I am?"

"Yeah, Colonel O'Neill and Daniel. It's slightly disturbing. Well, you'll call us if you need help, right?"

Atemu took control and nodded briefly. "Of course we will. _If_ we ever need help, which we won't."

"No, no, of course not," she said, her eyes twinkling mischievously. She walked over to the DHD and quickly dialed Earth; Atemu and Kaiba were surprised to see that the Gate activated when she tried it. She typed in her GDO code so she could get back through the gate, then hugged Kaiba tightly.

"You make sure he doesn't get into any trouble, Seto," she whispered to him.

"No problem," he answered, kissing her on the cheek. She pulled away and waved before running up the stairs and into the Stargate, which shut down a few seconds later. Kaiba glanced at the Pharaoh pocket, then up to his face, saying, "So, what'd she give Yugi?"

"I have no idea." Atemu reached into his pocket, but before he could take the bottle out, Yugi took over again.

"Kaiba," he scolded, "Bakura doesn't want you to know."

Kaiba shrugged and started walking away. "Whatever. How about the rescue mission?"

* * *

"Hey, Bakura," Malik whispered, poking his friend lightly on the arm through the metal bars separating them. After they'd arrived at the castle, Duzell and Saint Dane had agreed that the two Tau'ri needed to rest for the night before starting their duties the next day. So they been stripped and given new clothing as well as two 'presidential suites', which were more like Medieval prison cells than anything else. They were lucky to have been able to keep the four Items they held between them, but the vampires hadn't known what power was sealed within them anyway.

Malik sighed and leaned tiredly again the wall of his cell, deciding to just give up on making the spirit respond for a while. Bakura hadn't moved once except to breathe since they'd been brought down here, so he probably wouldn't anytime soon. The Egyptian let his head fall back against the wall and closed his eyes. "How'd we get into this, Bakura? We used to have such normal lives before the Stargate. We didn't have to worry about any of this." He rolled his head so he was staring at the inert spirit. "All we had to worry about was our own lives and our own problems. There wasn't the Gou'ald or the Asgard or the Ancients. Just you and me against the Pharaoh."

"You wouldn't really call being a Tomb Keeper a 'normal life', would you?"

Malik jumped and quickly looked to where the voice was coming from at his side.

"And were our lives really normal anyway, with the Millennium Items?" Ryou said, amused, from where he was sitting. "So do you really think you're worse off than before, or just in a different situation?"

The blonde smiled and tried to pull him into a hug, but passed right through Ryou's spirit body. He sighed and leaned back against the wall again. "You're right, Ryou, but I can't help it. I'm scared."

"I know, so am I," Ryou murmured. _More than you know._ "But think about Bakura for a moment. He knew, has known, about all this for thousands of years. Don't you think he's a bit worse off than you?"

Malik looked at him suddenly. "Ryou, didn't his medicine get taken away?"

"Yes...though it was going to run out tomorrow anyway..."

"What's gonna happen?"

* * *

"Come on, Yugi!" came Atemu's crackly voice. Yugi stopped, leaning against a tree, and pushed a button on his own radio.

"For the last time, no! I'm not telling you what's in that bottle!" he hissed into it. "No stop talking, Yami! You'll get us captured!"

"Fine...Pharaoh out."

Yugi sighed and resumed his walking. They'd decided to take the direct approach to get to Pheliosta and, as a result, were now walking through the woods on the mountainside without flashlights to light the midnight darkness around them. Atemu was somewhere in the woods to Yugi's right, Kaiba was on his left, and they were about halfway to the city already. But it was dark. And cold. And dark.

"Hey guys," Yugi said into his radio, "could we stop for the night? I think it's past midnight." He jumped when he saw the flash of a wristwatch nearby.

"It is," Kaiba confirmed, though he didn't stop walking.

"I'm hungry, Kaiba!" Atemu whined, causing the radios to screech.

"Ow. All right, look for my flashlight, then." A light turned on almost next to Yugi, nearly scaring him senseless; he hadn't known Kaiba had been that close.

After a few minutes, they had gathered in a small clearing and had a fire going in the middle. Yugi was working on cooking them something over the fire, while Atemu and Kaiba set up the rest of camp. They would take turns as look out for the rest of the night.

* * *

As the hours passed, Malik expected Bakura to move at least a little bit, but the yami remained completely immobile. Malik himself fidgeted and tried to sleep, even tried pacing his cell, but there was no way for him to tell how much time had passed. The Egyptian was almost afraid his friend had just up and died, since Bakura hadn't moved an inch.

* * *

In the morning, Yugi, Atemu, and Kaiba set off for Pheliosta again. The closer they got to the mountain city, the more carefully they moved through the brush; who knew if there was anyone waiting for them. Just as the sun was setting, they came upon the outskirts of the city and had to stop momentarily.

"Yugi, you shouldn't be seen here," Atemu warned as he stopped and watched for any signs of life. Yugi nodded and faded so that he could only be seen and heard by his yami.

"Did you notice anything, wrong with this city?" Kaiba asked after a few minutes. Atemu looked again and his eyes widened as he realized what the taller was hinting at.

"There's no one here," he murmured. Indeed, no one was walking around the darkening suburb, and no lights were turning on in the houses. There seemed to be no indication anywhere that anyone lived here.

"You'd think there would at least be lights," Yugi commented, heard only by Atemu. The yami nodded and said to Kaiba, "C'mon, we should go." Kaiba nodded and followed Atemu into the city, guns and Zats at the ready.

* * *

At the same time that the Pharaoh and Kaiba reached the city, Malik heard a heavy door slam open nearby and a pompous man wearing a bulky uniform strode up to the bars.

"Lord Saint Dane requires your presence," the man said to Bakura in an extremely arrogant tone. Malik figured he was very used to being in charge. Then, looking down at the spirit, he was shocked. Bakura had moved for the first time in twenty-four hours by looking up at him languidly while the uniformed man looked at the spirit impatiently and repeated his words. Bakura stared at him for a few more minutes before he slowly got to his feet and walked to the front of the cell. The overconfident man smirked at him, think he had won, and briefly turned his eyes off of Bakura to find his keys, but it was enough. Bakura's hand shot through the bars and grabbed the man's collar, puling him forward with enough force that his neck broke instantly as he hit the bars. He was dropped lifeless to the floor.

"Give my regards to Apophis, Jaffa," the spirit hissed. He smirked at Malik and walked back to lean against the wall. "You should pretend you're asleep."

"What?" Malik stuttered, too shocked to realize he'd been spoken to.

Bakura smirked at him again and closed his eyes. "If they think you're asleep, they won't take you away immediately."

Malik stared at him with confusion; this was what Bakura was like without medication? It was like Battle City all over again! He heard loud footsteps and voices rapidly approaching, so he slumped and closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep like Bakura had suggested he do. He heard shouts as the guards found the one Bakura had killed, then the sound of jingling keys, then Bakura's cell door crashing open. He tried not to flinch or move at all during all the commotion, though that could have been suspicious in itself.

"Get the hell off of me!" Bakura yelled angrily. There was a thump and more yelling from the guards and Bakura, but eventually the clamor began to move and slowly faded away. Malik sat up as he heard the door slam and saw that Bakura was gone.

"They took him."

* * *

Atemu and Kaiba grew more and more concerned as they walked through the now lamp-lit city. They hadn't seen one person, one scrap of evidence, not even one dog, to indicate that anyone lived in this city, and that lack of population continued as they neared the center of the city.

"It's like a ghost town," Atemu commented. Kaiba nodded in agreement.

"Yami! You'll never guess what's up ahead!" Yugi called from where he was down the street. Atemu ran forward and stopped as he reached the end of the street, looking in awe at the town square beyond. Standing silent and dark in the middle of the plaza was another Stargate.

"Hn, I knew I was right," Kaiba said as he came up behind them.

"They must have had it open yesterday to stop us from leaving," Atemu concluded, "so they could capture Bakura and Malik."

"Well, it's good that we know where it is," said Kaiba as he started walking again.

"Uh, why?"

"Just in case we need to get out of here quickly."

Atemu stared at him for a few moments before he saw Yugi past the Gate waving him forward. The Pharaoh caught up with Kaiba at the end of another street and gasped as he saw the dark castle beyond. It stood tall above them with sinister gargoyles poking out everywhere pouring a reddish mist like blood over everything. In front of the castle, all the people of the city, it seemed, had gathered to watch the man standing above them on the palace steps. Saint Dane. And he had dressed for the occasion. He was definitely in control here.

Atemu and Kaiba glanced once at each other and crept into the crowd so they could watch.

Saint Dane raised his arms to quiet the crowd, much like Kaiba had done when they'd first arrived on Quillan. "Good evening, citizens of Pheliosta! I have a lovely show for you all tonight!" Everyone cheered. "Yes, yes, I'm sure you're all quite excited. And you should be! For Duzell and I have two very special guests we would like you to meet!"

"Duzell isn't up there," Atemu murmured quietly. Kaiba shrugged, still watching Saint Dane.

The pale-haired man stepped aside slightly. "First, all the way from the planet Tau'ri, the lovely Bakura!"

Atemu tensed as Bakura was dragged out by three guards, hissing and spitting and cursing and struggling, and he almost got away from the man holding him but a swift kick in the gut stopped that for a short bit. This one event cause a lot of commotion in the crowd, though.

"–He almost got away from them; he must be really strong–"

"–He's nuts, rabid, just look at him–"

"–Are all Tau'ri like this?–"

"–This is dangerous; what about the Prophecy?–"

Atemu and Kaiba glanced at each other at the mention of the Prophecy. They'd thought Saint Dane had told them all of it back in La Naan.

Saint Dane waved his arms to get back the crowd's attention. "I assure you, he is well restrained." He snapped his fingers and Duzell brought out a very complacent Malik. "You see, he is too afraid of this one's death." These words seemed to calm the crowd somewhat, but as Atemu watched the thief, he could tell that the thief probably couldn't care less.

The blue-eyed man strode over to Bakura and gently raised the spirit's chin to look at him, though when he spoke, he spoke to the whole crowd. "Tonight, I will prove the Prophecy wrong." He brought a small necklace out of his pocket and showed it to the crowd. "The Sharat Bakra–" he placed the chain around Bakura's neck with a smirk– "shall go to it's destined."

The crowd began laughing and talking happily; apparently, all threat from Bakura had just disappeared.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Bakura demanded suddenly, instantly silencing the crowd. Saint Dane stared at him, obviously not sure what to do; it was apparent he'd never been in a situation like this before. Bakura went on, turning his gaze down to the crowd and right at Atemu, "I already told you, I'm not going to be compliant. I'm not going to be your fucking slave. This stupid necklace does little to change that."

Saint Dane smiled and calmly brushed the hair away from Bakura neck. "Really? And what about your friend Malik? Would you let him die?"

Bakura scoffed and looked back at him. "Tch, the hell with Malik. I don't care."

"That's a pity," Saint Dane said, though it was becoming clear that he was no longer in control and he didn't know what to do. "He's so pretty too. But you can't just get away with that insolence." He motioned once to Duzell and, not even bothering to see if his order was carried out, bit down hard on Bakura's neck. Duzell brought out a long knife, but before it came anywhere near Malik, the Egyptian elbowed him in the stomach, then kicked him in the groin, and while Duzell was trying to recover, Malik grabbed the knife and thrust it into the vampire's heart. Duzell died instantly.

"Now Pharaoh!" he yelled as he dashed down the steps; he'd noticed Atemu and Kaiba as well. The crowd, who had all been too stunned by their leader's death to do anything, was equally startled as the two Tau'ri started shooting everyone they could with their Zats. Bakura kicked Saint Dane in the gut to get him off, wrenched off the guards holding him, and ran down into the crowd, joining the battle with the staff weapon Kaiba had tossed to him. The four members of SG-M managed to meet up in all the confusion, still shooting at everybody.

"Got any plans, Pharaoh?" Bakura asked, relatively calm as he blew a hole in another vampire.

"We get to the Gate in the city and get out of here!"

Malik suddenly thought of something and, after activating a Mirror Force shield around them, said, "We need to get Spader and the others out of there!"

"Go on then," Atemu said, tossing him a block of C4 and a detonator. Malik grinned and ran off into the crowd toward the castle.

"How about we get out of here?" Kaiba suggested. Atemu and Bakura nodded and they ran off toward the Gate.

"Hey Bakura! Were they really–"

"Vampires? Hell yes. No shut up Pharaoh!" Bakura turned around and, while he was still running, activated a Trap Hole with the Ring, causing a giant hole to form in the middle of the street.

"Damnit! Get him!" yelled Saint Dane as Bakura ran off again.

The crowd ran off to different streets of the city, trying to get through to the square where the Stargate was while SG-M kept running, arriving a few minutes earlier than the vampires. Kaiba dashed to the DHD while Atemu and Bakura began setting up shields around the square with various cards, shooting at anyone who might show up. They heard a small explosion from the direction of the castle just as the Gate activated, and Malik came running into the square, setting up his own barrier after him. Kaiba sent their GDO code and, after a few seconds, ran into the open wormhole. Atemu followed soon after, then Malik, and Bakura was last because he was having a blast shooting at the Pheliostans. The last thing he saw before entering the Gate was Saint Dane's crestfallen expression.

* * *

As soon as Bakura stepped through the other side into the SGC, the iris slid closed and they heard a few thumps before the Gate shut down.

"SG-M, welcome back. It's good to see you," said General Hammond over the intercom.

"Thank you, General!" Malik said.

"You sure to be interesting briefing will be at 1700 hours."

They nodded up to him and started walking down the ramp. Yugi took control of his body again and tossed the bottle Carter had given him to Bakura. Bakura stared down at it, then glared at Yugi.

"Why do you people keep insisting on this?" he demanded. "Even my useless yadonushi! I don't need this."

Ryou appeared and took the bottle of pills from Bakura and pulled him faster down the steps. "Come on, Bakura-sama, let's go eat something." Bakura growled softly but went along with it; Kaiba followed them leaving Malik and Yugi alone.

"Hey, Yugi," Malik said after a few moments, "I wanted to thank you for saving us. I'm sure it was your idea."

Yugi blushed a bit. "You're welcome." He thought for a few moments and added, "Did you find out what the rest of the Prophecy was?"

Malik nodded and, after a little thought, took his head. "Yeah, I overheard Saint Dane and Duzell talking about it. They said the rest of it was something like _'But if their friends are loyal and true, they may escape back to their world, and in the process destroy the life force of Pheliosta._'"


	4. Soul Stealer

Calai'di: Hey, welcome episode four. This chap's a bit lighter than the last two or three. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with this story!

And for anyone wondering, I don't hate vampires; it's quite the opposite. I wish I could _be_ a vampire, like Duzell or Miyu. That would be totally awesome. -sighs- But alas, I'm not. Yet.

Disclaimers: I do not own Google (did you know that if you Google search my screen name, you come up with a lot of sites in Spanish? It's weird. I thought all the words in my language were just made up.) or this site But I do own my own stories!

Warnings: I do put myself in this story (sorry it was necessary), but no one really finds out anything from me. Well…maybe a little…

* * *

Episode 4: Soul Stealer

Yugi knocked quietly on the door to Daniel's office and peaked inside, only to giggle quietly when he saw that Ryou was fast asleep with his face in a book on the page he'd last been reading. Yugi was starting to figure out why Ryou looked so pale all the time; he was always under a lot of stress, what with school and Bakura being the way he was. And now Ryou had been spending all his time trying to figure out the words that were written on the pendant that Saint Dane had given Bakura.

The shorter duelist finally decided that maybe the safety of the book was more important than Ryou getting sleep, so he quietly walked in and shook the other teen awake. Ryou sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking around sleepily.

"Y-Yugi? Wh-what time i-is it?" he asked, yawning.

Yugi smiled kindly and looked down at his watch. "It's three in the afternoon. You fell asleep."

"Oh." Ryou blushed and closed his book. "I've just been so busy and–"

"Ryou, you need to sleep. Even your body's telling you that."

"But–"

Yugi shook his head and pulled Ryou out of the room. "No 'buts'. You're going to bed this minute."

Ryou groaned but let Yugi steer him down the hall. "I guess you're right, Yugi. But I'm really close to figuring it out! The text seems to be a derivative of Latin, but it's also a lot like Ancient Egyptian, almost like–"

"–'the Gou'ald and the Ancients made their own together,'" Yugi reeled off, causing Ryou to blush. "I know Ryou. You've been 'close' for the past three days." He pushed Ryou into his room. "Now get some sleep."

Ryou sighed and closed the door, muttering that he'd try to get some sleep.

* * *

"So, Yugi, how's our boy doing?" Malik asked as Yugi walked into the commissary. Yugi shrugged and sat down next to him at the table, grabbing the Egyptian's glass of Jell-O as he did so. "Hey!"

"I put him to bed," Yugi said. He batted away Malik's hand and started eating the blue Jell-O. "Hopefully he's actually sleeping and not just staring into space."

"Knowing Ryou, that's probably exactly what he's doing," Atemu said. "Hey, I was kidding!" he added, pushing Yugi back down into his seat.

"Well, I can't blame him for being so into his research," Yugi muttered, thinking back to the necklace. "I'm interested too."

"Maybe you could help him," Malik suggested, poking a fork into his newly found ice cream.

"I...guess." Yugi made a face. "I'm not really good at that kind of thing. More like gam–"

"YUGI MUTOU, PLEASE KEEP YOUR MONSTERS UNDER CONTROL!"

Yugi blanched and kept his head down. "I'd forgotten about that."

Atemu stood up. "I'll get them." He ran out of the room, almost forgetting to leave his food behind as he went.

"I guess I'll go help him," Yugi said as he got up as well. "See ya, Malik."

* * *

Ryou, indeed, was sleeping, but it wasn't a very easy sleep and certainly wasn't dream-free. In fact, Ryou was having an extremely vivid dream. He was back home in Japan walking down a street headed for Yugi's house, though he had no idea why, but he knew he had to get there soon, that Yugi was in some kind of trouble. But before he got very far, Yugi came running out of nowhere and collided with him, sending them both sprawling to the ground. Yugi quickly got to his feet and pulled Ryou with him as he started running again.

"Yugi–"

"Can't explain now, Ryou! Just come with me!" Yugi lead him through the streets and down an alleyway where he stopped; it was a dead end. "Oh, no." Yugi glanced back at the entrance of the alley but it was clear by his expression that there was no hope.

"What's going on, Yugi?" Ryou asked, also glancing back at the street.

"Yugi stared up at him, fear apparent in the back of his eyes. "I was being chased by this huge shadow!"

"A shadow?"

"Uh-huh, like...the Shadow Realm, almost, but it was following me! It wanted to capture me!"

They waited silently in the alley for a few minutes, but nothing showed up. Yugi cautiously walked to the entrance of the alley and peaked out down the street.

"I don't see anything." He walked out of the alley, glancing back and forth. "I think it's gone."

"Yugi, wait!" Ryou called as Yugi started walking down the street again, but Yugi seemed not to hear him and soon disappeared from sight. Ryou called out and ran after Yugi, but the small duelist had completely vanished.

"Yugi? Yugi!"

"Ryou!"

Ryou jerked awake by someone shaking him and calling his name. It took him a few moments to remember where he was and to recognize who was shaking him. He sat up, swatting his yami away.

"Bakura, what's wrong," he asked sleepily. Bakura pulled him out of bed toward the door.

"It's Yugi–"

"Yugi? What happened?"

Bakura sighed and pulled him out of the room. "You should see for yourself."

* * *

When Ryou and Bakura stepped into the infirmary a few minutes later, Yugi was lying perfectly still, except for breathing, on a bed, and Atemu and Malik were sitting at his side. Ryou's eyes widened as he saw Yugi, memories of the dream still fresh in his mind.

"Yugi! What happened to him!" Ryou asked, running forward to the bed. Atemu glanced up and almost glared at him.

"I thought you would know," he growled.

Ryou recoiled slightly. "What do you mean? I haven't done anything."

"Ryou…Yugi's soul is gone," Malik said softly. "And only the Ring and Eye have the power to take it."

Ryou stood stunned for a few moments, trying to process what they were accusing him of; did they really think _he_ would steal Yugi's soul? He was one of Yugi's best friends, for Ra's sake! He turned around abruptly, glaring at Bakura. "Do you know anything about this?"

"They already asked me about it," Bakura answered, looking away; he hated to see his hikari so mad at him. "They already determined I didn't do it and made me go get you."

"Well, I didn't do it!" Ryou exclaimed, turning back to Atemu. "Why would I?"

"He was the last person you had contact with," the Pharaoh argued, "and he said you weren't too happy with him when he left you."

"But I wouldn't do something like this! I can't believe you would accuse me of something like this!"

"Ryou…" Malik stood up and grabbed the paler hikari's hands. "Please don't be mad at us. But there is no one else who could have done this."

Ryou sighed. "I'm aware of that. But think about who you're accusing. Would I really be able to steal my best friend's soul? I don't even know how!"

"But then, who could have done it?" Atemu wondered aloud. "If it's not you or Bakura…"

Malik suddenly hit his palm to his forehead, groaning, "Gah, all this thinking is making my brain hurt. I'm going to bed, and Ra knows Yugi would want you to get some more sleep, Ryou." He smiled and pulled Ryou out of the infirmary. "Come on, Pharaoh can watch over Yugi on his own for a bit."

As soon as Malik got Ryou a good distance down the hall, though, he stopped and placed something in Ryou's hand. It was the Sharat Bakra.

"Here Ryou, look at this." Malik pointed at one of the eight sections of the pendant; it was now filled in with what looked like crimson glass. Malik noticed Ryou's shocked look and added, "I was looking around in Dr. Jackson's office and noticed it. I thought you might like to see."

"Has Atemu seen this?" Ryou asked, examining the pendant closely.

"No…should he?"

Ryou turned the Sharat Bakra over in his fingers. "I'm not sure. You don't mind if I go back to my research, do you?"

"Nah, you got enough sleep I'm sure," Malik said, grinning. "I won't tell Pharaoh that though."

The pale hikari hugged his friend tightly. "Thank you, Malik."

Malik blushed and pushed him off. "You're welcome. Maybe you should go research stuff now?"

"Good idea. I'll see you later Malik!" Ryou said as he ran off, waving.

"You'd better come to breakfast!" Malik called after him before shaking his head and walking the opposite way down the hall.

* * *

Ryou's research went just as well as all the other tries, which was not well at all, so he decided to wander to the commissary to get something to eat like Malik had told him to. He picked up a few items on his try, then went to sit down at the table where Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c were eating; the rest of SG-M hadn't shown up yet.

"Morning, guys," he said tiredly, watching with amusement as Jack gobbled up his oatmeal; they had no idea why he liked it so much, but Daniel said it had something to do with the time loop he'd been trapped in.

"Good morning, Ryou," Teal'c said almost cheerfully. "Is your research progressing successfully?"

Ryou sighed and started eating. "Not even close. I haven't been able to find anything. Just a few leads that don't lead anywhere."

"Sounds familiar," Jack said, grinning at Daniel, who pretending he had no idea what his friend was talking about.

"I think the problem is that I don't know much about ancient languages, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch."

Daniel smiled and a patted his arm. "You know, I did offer my help."

"Yes, but I wanted to do it on my own–"

"Ryou!" Bakura ran into the cafeteria and all the way to their table, nearly collapsing on his hikari. "Ryou, Pharaoh's disappeared and Malik just collapsed in the infirmary! You have to help me!"

"But Malik was doing just fine when I left him!"

"Well he's not fine now!" The spirit finally noticed the other members of the table and stood up straighter. "Jack, Teal'c, Daniel, everything is under control. Come on, hikari."

Jack stood up at the same time that Ryou did, food completely forgotten. "I'm coming with you."

"O'Neill-san, you really don't have to–"

"But I want to. Come on, Daniel." Jack ignored Daniel's soft protests as he dragged the archaeologist out of his seat. "Infirmary?"

"Yes." Bakura pulled Ryou out of the commissary and down the hall, Jack and Daniel following. They walked in this mini parade all the way to Daniel's office, where Ryou pulled free off his yami and dashed inside.

"Ryou–"

"Just a sec!" Ryou rummaged around through the papers on Daniel's desk for a few moments before he found what he was looking for: the Sharat Bakra. As he examined it, his eyes widened in shock. "I don't understand…"

"Ryou!"

"I'm coming!" He stared down at the pendant again, hardly able to believe his eyes. Two more sections of the necklace were filled in with the glass like substance, one with dark purple, and the other, gold. Still staring at the necklace in disbelief, he walked out of the room back to his yami.

"What took you so long?" Bakura asked as soon as Ryou appeared. He grabbed the hikari's arm and started pulling him down the hall again. He glanced over at Ryou as they walked down the hall, noticing that the hikari was holding something and examining it closely, but he couldn't tell what it was. "What are you looking at?"

Ryou jumped, startled, and held out his hand so that the Sharat Bakra was revealed. "It's that necklace you got from Saint Dane."

"It looks different," Bakura commented as he took it to look at it more closely. He noticed the filled in sections and pointed them out. "These sections are filled in."

"I know. That's what I was looking at," Ryou said as he took the necklace back. He placed the cord over his head, then started pulling Bakura faster toward the infirmary, though they were almost there anyway. He felt he needed to test something.

* * *

"Damn, it didn't work," Ryou muttered, letting the Sharat Bakra fall back against his chest from where he'd been holding it over Malik. His yami, Jack, and Daniel looked on in confusion.

"Hikari, what are you doing?"

Ryou turned to them, looking extremely confused and irritated. "Well, I thought maybe this thing would react to being in Malik's presence, but I guess not."

"What do you mean?" Daniel was asking this time.

"Well, you see these two sections that are filled in?" He pointed to the purple and gold sections. "This only happened _after_ Malik collapsed and Atemu disappeared. And the red one filled in only after Yugi's soul was taken. I thought they might be connected."

Bakura nodded, perfectly understanding the logic his hikari was using, but then he noticed that, once again, there was something different about the necklace. "Ryou, there's another section filled he," he noted. This one was black like obsidian glass.

Ryou stared down at the necklace in disbelief. "But we don't know of anyone who's–"

"Colonel O'Neill, sir!" called a nurse from the doorway as she entered. They turned to look at her as three more wheeled in a collapsible bed. "I'm sorry, we don't know what happened. He just…collapsed, sir," she went on, referring to the body the nurse were lifting onto a hospital bed. It was Teal'c.

Ryou gasped and stared wide-eyed at the other three, slowly shaking his head. "I didn't do it…I had no idea…"

"It can't be anyone else, hikari," Bakura said, looking at him sadly. "You're the only person capable of it that has had contact with all of them."

"Yami, I didn't do it! I swear I didn't! Please, I don't even know how! Besides they're my friends! I swear I didn't do it!" Ryou pleaded, but he already knew that his yami's mind was made up and there was no way he could change that. So, sighing, he stepped back a bit and bowed to the Colonel. "Sir," he began, taking in a deep breath and sounding determined, "I would to advise that I be isolated from human contact, at least until this problem can be sorted out."

"No, Ryou!" Bakura exclaimed, instantly losing his composure. He hadn't been ready to hear that.

Ryou went on, trying to ignore his yami however much his heart was aching to do so. "I don't know if it will help any, but I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I suggest I be taken to a Holding or Iso. Room for now, before I come in contact with anyone else." He took the Ring from around his neck and hastily put it about Bakura's, which instantly switched their places so now he was in spirit form. Bakura fingered the cord that was now around his neck and looked up at Ryou in shock, but the hikari was avoiding his gaze.

"Colonel, should we go now?" Ryou asked, staring at the floor.

Jack sighed and nodded. "All right. Daniel, you go tell General Hammond about this, then come straight back here and sit on one of those beds. I don't want you to hurt yourself if you 'collapse'." He gestured for Ryou to follow as he walked out of the infirmary; the hikari followed dutifully, but before he got too far down the hall, Bakura ran after them and placed the Ring about Ryou's neck again.

"Ryou, I want you to keep the Ring with you–"

"No, Bakura." Ryou took the Ring off and gave it back to him. "I don't know why our friend's souls are being taken away, but if it has to do with me, than it probably has to do with the Ring. I can't have it with me."

Bakura sighed and kissed his forehead. "I hope we can solve this soon."

"Me too." Ryou hugged him tightly before letting go and walking down the hall to where Jack was waiting, following him as he started walking again.

* * *

"Are you sure he won't be a hazard while he's down there?" Hammond asked, watching as Ryou paced in the Iso. Room below.

"As long as none of us goes down there, it should be safe, sir," Carter said from next to him.

Bakura sighed and leaned back against a computer desk, determinedly looking away from his hikari in the room below. "He doesn't need to be down there," he grumbled quietly, picking at the Ring's cord.

"Until we're sure he's not connected to the recent…events, he'll have to stay in isolation," Hammond answered firmly.

"And at least no one else has collapsed since Daniel and Colonel O'Neill," Carter added. Bakura briefly glared at her but still didn't look down into the Iso. Room.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure that's a good thing," he said bitterly. "The problem here is: my hikari is down there, by himself, with six of his friends gone. He doesn't do well in situations like this." He pushed off from the desk and started for the door of the observation room. "I'm going to go help him research."

"You can't go down there," Hammond warned.

"I'm not going down there," Bakura answered as he opened that door. "I'm going to Daniel's office." He bowed once and stepped out, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Ryou paced about the Iso. Room, wishing that Bakura could be here with him, just like when they had first come to the SGC. He smiled as he remembered the show they had put on for the Americans, a show they had put on in this exact room. A hand reached up to touch the Millennium Ring as he momentarily forgot it wasn't there and the hand touch the Sharat Bakra instead. He looked down sadly at the pendant and the two more sections now filled in, one a dark green and the other a sea green. The silver ring was about half the size of the Millennium Ring and was quartered by a cross, then each quarter was cut in half as well, making eight holes. On the back of the pendant, tiny words were inscribed along the silver, and it was these that Ryou was trying to decipher. He hadn't gotten anywhere so far.

He sighed again, sat down in a chair, and turned on the computer that had been brought into the Iso. Room for him–it was one of the few on the base that had an Internet connection–and once it was booted up, opened up a browser and started a search on the word 'sharat'. He frowned as he saw the few relevant results that actually showed up. He checked out a few of the results, but nothing promising came up; just stuff about bands and weird cults. Even Google had its limits, he supposed. Then he set the search for ''bakra'…and something very interesting came up. He shifted in his chair as he pressed the link.

The link took him to a story on a site called Fanfiction dot net that was by a person named "Calai'di." The story was called _The Holy Crusade of Bakura the Dark_, and it was about four gods the author had added to the Egyptian pantheon; four gods that were, not surprisingly, named after some of Ryou's friends and himself. He'd known for a few months that people often wrote about famous people in their stories, but it was almost shocking to find one about himself. The word 'bakra' came up in the very first chapter of the story as the name of a realm that 'Bakura' was ruler of–Bakura being the name of one of the gods.

As he read through the story he was both impressed and embarrassed about how much the authoress knew about him and his friends (_AN: This guy just has NOT read enough fanfiction. That story's rather mild…_) and near the end, he'd figured that the authoress was also a firm believer in the ancient Egyptian religion, she knew so much about it. In fact, she knew so much, he decided he needed to investigate what other stories she might have written. And it turned out she'd written quite a few, and they were all somewhat about him and his friends.

But as he scanned through the stories (_WAY too much time on his hands here_) he couldn't find any other reference to 'bakra' or 'sharat'. It was beginning to look like another dead end until he looked at the authoress's profile. It claimed that she had come up with the name "Calai'di" herself, and that various other words of her made up language popped occasionally in her stories. And there was an email address.

Ryou copied over the address and quickly wrote an email to the person before promptly falling asleep over the keyboard.

Dear Calai'di,

I've read a few of your stories and was wondering if you could tell me what the words 'sharat' and 'bakra' mean. It could really help me a lot.

Thanks,

Ryou Bakura

* * *

Bakura was watching Ryou sleep from the observation room with mixed feelings. He really wished he could be down in the Iso. Room, sleeping with Ryou in his arms on the bed, or better, sleeping back in their own room on the base. But the sad truth was before him; Ryou was the only person to have contact with every one of the victims before they collapsed so he must be responsible.

He sighed slightly as he booted up a computer and started browsing the Internet the same way Ryou had hours earlier, but he searched on all the words written on the pendant, not just what it was called. But every few minutes, his attention drifted back to watching his hikari until soon he was only watching his hikari again.

He stood up suddenly, staring into the Iso. Room.

Ryou was waking up.

But he wasn't acting like Bakura remembered him acting when he woke up. Usually, Ryou would grumble and complain, and it would take him ages to even open his eyes much less get out of bed, but this time he jerked awake, sitting straight up in his seat and looking around wide-eyed. Very wide-eyed. Bakura was strongly reminded of Yugi. Ryou stood up and looked around the room frantically.

"Hello?" he called, voice sounding a bit higher than normal. "Is anyone there? What am I doing here?"

Bakura was sorely tempted to talk to him through the microphone, but decided to wait.

Ryou walked around the room almost in a panic, unable to find a way out. "Hello? Can someone help me, please? I don't know what I'm doing here! Someone? Ryou? Malik?"

This got Bakura's attention. "Ryou, what are you talking about?"

Ryou stared up at the two-way mirror with confusion, starting to panic again when he saw his refection. "That's not me! Why do I look like Ryou?"

"All right, just calm down. What are you talking about? Of course you look like Ryou."

"But I'm not Ryou," argued the hikari. "I'm Yugi!"

* * *

"So you're saying that somehow Yugi's soul got put into Ryou?" Hammond asked incredulously, staring down into the Iso. Room. He, Carter, and Kaiba had gathered in the observation room after Bakura had called them saying that Ryou had woken up but sure as hell wasn't acting like himself.

"Exactly. I don't know why I didn't see it at first. He acted like Yugi, sounded like Yugi, and had Yugi's thoughts and memories." Bakura started hitting his head lightly on the glass. "A shrimp has taken over my hikari!"

Carter reached over and stopped his self-mutilation before it could do much damage. "How could this happen? Do you know?"

Bakura sighed and shook his head. "The Ring can only transfer someone's soul to an inanimate object, like a card. It can't put one into someone's body unless that body is already soulless."

"Hey guys?" called Yugi-Ryou, staring up at the mirror. "Could you please tell me what's going on here?"

Bakura glanced down at him and grabbed a microphone, ready to say something, but Kaiba beat him to it.

"Listen Yugi, just calm down. We'll figure this out, all right?"

"All right." Yugi-Ryou sat down on the bed, not looking calm at all. "What happened to Malik? Where is he?"

"We're not sure," Bakura spoke up, sending Kaiba a quizzical look. "His soul was taken a short time after yours. There's a good chance he's in my hikari with you."

This caused Yugi-Ryou to jump to his feet, panicking again. "What do you mean? I'm not the only one? Why is this happening?"

Kaiba spoke up again. "Yugi, we can't help you if you don't calm down." This caused Yugi-Ryou to sit down again. "Good." The brunette looked to Bakura, not comfortable with what should be said next.

Bakura glared slightly at him, but did pick out the microphone again. "All right, Yugi. Can you tell if there is anyone else with you in Ryou's head?"

"I don't know…I can't tell…I'm scared, Bakura…" He suddenly stood up and looked right at the two-way mirror, attitude completely changed. "Hey! What's goin' on!"

They stared at him with shock for a few moments before Carter stepped forward in realization.

"It's Colonel O'Neill." She took the microphone from Kaiba before anyone could react and said, "Sir? Are you all right?"

Jack-Ryou made a small face and gestured to himself. "I'm in the body of a seventeen year old with girlishly long hair and practically no upper body strength at all. Do I _look_ all right to you?"

"Watch it, Colonel," Bakura growled, his eyes flashing dangerously. "That's _my_ seventeen year old you're talking about."

Jack-Ryou grimaced, though it wasn't because of what Bakura had said. "You have no idea how weird this is."

"What's going on?" Bakura questioned, forgetting his previous annoyance.

"Well, Ryou's yelling at me," Jack-Ryou answered, still making a face. "So's Malik. Loudly."

"You can hear them?" Carter asked excitedly.

"Are they all right?" Bakura demanded.

"Can you hear all of them at once, or just one at a time?" was Kaiba's question.

"Whoa, whoa, one at time!" Jack-Ryou exclaimed, holding up his hands defensively. They shut up for a moment as he became still, making a face of concentration. "All right, I can hear everyone, all at the same time and otherwise, and everyone's just fine." He smirked suddenly and added, "Well, except for being in only one body, Malik says."

"That sounds like Malik," Bakura said, smiling.

"Uh…uh-oh…" Jack-Ryou made a face as though listening for something, looking very concerned. "Kids, I just lost Teal'c."

"Lost him?" Kaiba asked.

"I can't hear him anymore. Like he just went _poof!_"

Bakura waved his hand dismissively. "That's not a problem. With that many souls in one body, one or more may descend into the subconscious to help protect the others from an overload."

"Overload?"

The thief sighed and gently pulled at his hair. "Technically, only one soul is supposed to occupy a body at a time. Having two isn't really pushing it; mostly there's just an increased need for food and sleep to compensate for the extra energy required. The brain is perfectly capable of handling it. But if too many souls occupy the same body, the brain doesn't have enough capacity to hold all of those souls, at least not consciously, so if it stays that way for too long, the brain will fry."

"_Fry_?"

"Like an egg."

Jack-Ryou looked considerably disturbed. "Why did no one tell me this _before_?"

"We didn't know until now, sir," Carter said. She suddenly stared at Bakura. "Wait, if you have the Ring, don't you have the physical body?"

"Well, I should I suppose." Bakura smiled mischievously before frowning again. "But I'm using the Ring to drain energy from the Shadow Realm to keep up a physical solidity and appearance. Ryou has our body at the moment. He doesn't know that, but he's sure to figure it out."

"Hey, guys?" Jack-Ryou called "What am I supposed to do to keep my brain from frying?"

"It's Ryou's brain, and we don't know yet," Bakura growled into the microphone. "Is Teal'c the only one you can't contact at the moment?"

Jack-Ryou was silent for a few seconds before answering, "Yugi's not answering either."

"All right, that's two that have retreated," Bakura verified. "That should be good enough for now."

"Do you know if Ryou was able to find anything about this?" Kaiba asked into the microphone.

"…He says he didn't find much, just some story on the Internet that used the word 'bakra'. He says…he says he emailed the author but doesn't expect to hear back from her this soon."

"So, he actually found something?" Bakura asked, sounding almost incredulous. In an instant, Jack-Ryou's expression changed dramatically to one of extreme ire. Jack was gone.

"Yes, Bakura, I 'actually found something'," Ryou said bitterly, glaring up at the mirror tat he knew his yami was behind. Bakura recoiled slightly; Ryou angry would scare even the coldest of hearts.

"I'm sorry, hikari. You know I didn't mean it like that. I was just surprised."

"I'm so sure." Ryou smiled sweetly at them, a smiled promising much pain and servitude for his yami once this was over, and sat down at the computer to start working again, blatantly ignoring them. Bakura sighed and sat down his own computer, opening up an IM window to try and talk to him and see what he could do to help.

* * *

"Report, Major," Hammond ordered as he entered the room several hours after leaving it. Sam shot to her feet, slightly startled.

"Uh, well, sir, Ryou seems to be handling it rather well, having all those voices in his head–"

"Of course he is. He's had me in his head for the past two years, after all," Bakura commented without looking up from the screen.

"–So far, Teal'c is the only one who hasn't taken control yet. Colonel O'Neill has been out a lot, and so have Malik and Ryou–"

"–Who has been the one researching–"

"–So there hasn't really been that much progress."

"I want my people back in their bodies," Hammond said firmly.

"We're working on it, sir," Carter answered, squeezing Kaiba's shoulder. He looked up at her, nodded, and left the room. She turned back to look at General Hammond. "Sir, I honestly believe that this won't be solved until that author Ryou emailed gets back to him."

"And why's that?"

"Because then we'll know what it is that necklace does. We aren't finding anything just looking on the Internet."

"She thinks the Sharat Bakra is directly responsible for all this," Bakura explained.

"Well, think about it. All this started happening after you got back, and Ryou is the one it's centered around. He's wearing the necklace. And the sections of the pendant filled every time someone's soul was stolen."

Hammond nodded. "It makes sense. And you think that this author might have the answers we're looking for?"

"If she knows parts of the language, then she might, sir."

"Very well. Let me know the moment you find something."

"Yes, sir." Sam saluted him as he left, then sat down at her computer and began searching again.

* * *

It was about four in the afternoon the next day when they heard a shout of triumph from Ryou down in the Iso. Room. Bakura jumped to his feet to see him better, grabbing the microphone.

"What happened, Malik?"

"Ryou got an email back from that author!" called Malik-Ryou. He stared at the screen intently for a few moments before yelling again, "She's got an answer!"

"Well, read it aloud then!"

Malik-Ryou nodded and stared at the screen again. "_'Ryou, sorry it took so long to get back to you. I've been busy with fanfics and RPs lately. To tell the truth, I was freaked out when I got your email. Like 'What the hell!' freaked out. I mean, Ryou Bakura emailed me. That was totally cool. Anyway, the words 'sharat' and 'bakra' mean 'soul' and 'thief' respectively, though I have no clue how you know of the word sharat cause I've never used it in a fic before. That almost freaked me out as much as actually getting an email from you. Well, I better let you get back to whatever you were doing. Thanks for reading my fics! Review! Calai'di.'_ And I thought I was weird," Malik commented once he'd finished.

"So, the Sharat Bakra is…a soul thief?" Carter concluded. She jumped slightly when Bakura punched the tabletop, anger emanating from him in waves.

"Damn vampire…" he growled. "That damn Saint Dane was planning this all along! He knew this would happen if we escaped!"

"Bakura…"

"No!" He began pacing around the room, looking angry enough that even Kaiba didn't stand in his way. "This is all my fault!"

"No it isn't–"

"It is! If I weren't…the way I am, I would have had enough sense to through the damn necklace away!" He gazed down at Malik-Ryou sadly. "He's hurting and it's all my fault." He walked back over to the computer desk and picked up a microphone. "Malik," he said loudly, startling the teen down in the Iso. Room, "I want you to email her back with all of the words on that pendant–"

"Bakura…" Carter warned softly.

"–do no omit any of them. Write it down just like it is on the back of the necklace and send it to her to see if she can translate it–"

"But, Bakura–" Malik-Ryou started, coming to the same conclusion as Major Carter.

"–no, wait…see if she has an AIM name and is online and ask her right now–"

"Bakura, be quiet!" Kaiba ordered. Bakura fell silent, glaring at him. "Good. Now listen to Sam, all right?"

"Thanks, Seto. Listen, Bakura, I know you're hurt and angry, and you want answers, but you can't jeopardize the secrecy of this base."

"How would getting a translation risk revealing this base?" Bakura asked, somewhat confused.

"Because this person is going to want to know where you found the words to be translated," Kaiba answered, catching on. "Apparently, she already is suspicious because Ryou asked about a word he couldn't have read on the Internet. What do you think she'd think if you reeled out a whole paragraph of words only she thinks she knows?"

"That she's either being spied on or–"

"Or there's something else going on," Carter finished for him.

"Authors are notorious for having overactive imaginations; I'm sure someone like this could easily come up with a reason that wouldn't be too far off," Kaiba added; yes, he had worked with a few authors in his time.

Bakura shrugged, leaning casually back against a chair, though his voice said almost the opposite of his body language. "You're all paranoid."

"Hey Bakura, what do you want me to do?" Malik-Ryou called, sounding almost desperate.

Bakura glanced down at him and spoke into the microphone again. "We're working on it, Malik, just be a little patient."

"All right." Malik-Ryou walked over to the bed and flopped down onto his back, gazing passively up at the ceiling. "But…Ryou's really scared, Bakura."

This got the yami's attention. "What?"

"He's…he's been crying somewhat," Malik-Ryou answered softly, barely loud enough for them to hear. "He won't listen to reason and keeps saying this is his fault."

"No, no, no…" Bakura turned and leaned over onto the computer desks, staring sternly down at Malik-Ryou whether the teen could see him or not. "Listen, Ryou, this is not your fault, got it. Don't you go blaming yourself for this."

Ryou looked up at them, smiling sadly. "I'm sorry, Bakura-chan."

"Ryou, listen to me! This is not your fault! Not. Your. Fault."

"I-it's Saint Dane's fault," Ryou said quietly, sounding unsure.

"Exactly! It's all Saint Dane's fault. You keep telling yourself that!"

"O-okay…"

Bakura sighed and sat down at his computer again, just staring at the screen without really seeing. Carter bit her lip and thought about saying something but decided against it and started researching again.

* * *

"Hey guys?" Daniel-Ryou called from where he was sitting at his computer. "I think I found something."

"What?" the three up in the observation room exclaimed at the same time.

"It…looks like a site on the ancient Egyptian language from…before the pyramids were built. That's the time when Ra was around."

"Well, Saint Dane said Quillan was a Goa'uld occupied world at one time," Bakura said, nodding in understanding.

"Yes, but the writing on the pendant isn't just like Goa'uld; it's like Ancient too." Daniel-Ryou looked at the screen for a few moments before going on. "But this site is about how all languages might have come from a common source, and it shows pictures of some tablets this guy found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. This is really interesting…" He mumbled a few more things before lapsing into silence.

"Hey, let's keep talking, okay?" Bakura called down to him. Daniel-Ryou glanced up again and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Anyway, there's a sort of dictionary on this site of all the words this guy has been able to translate so far, and it's quite a few actually. And–" he examined the Sharat Bakra for a few moments before grinning up at them– "every word on the necklace is here."

The three up in the observation room brightened up considerably.

"So, how long will it take to translate it all?" Bakura asked eagerly.

Daniel-Ryou looked down at the necklace again and after a few moments said, "Um, a couple hours, a half a day maybe–"

"What? Why so long!"

"Have you looked at this closely? The text is pretty small, and it's divided into paragraphs. I'm amazed Ryou could read this without a magnifying glass."

Bakura glared down at him and exhaled loudly. "Fine. Just…try to go as fast as you can, okay?" But Daniel-Ryou was already typing line after line of text on the computer, having stopped listening after Bakura's first word.

Carter pulled Bakura off his computer and out of the room for a moment. "Bakura, are you all right?"

"What are you talking about? I'm fine."

"When was the last time you took your medicine?"

Bakura glared at her and threw his hands up into the air. "You're as bad as Ryou, I swear! Why do you care in the first place? Why don't you go back in there with your boyfriend and leave me alone?"

Sam smiled and pushed him away from the door. "It's been too long, hasn't it?"

"A couple of hours too long, yes," Bakura answered, nodding. "But not long enough that I'm totally psycho yet!"

"Why don't you go get some sleep, hmm? I'll come get you if Daniel finishes the translation."

"All right," Bakura conceded, walking forward under his own will. "But I want to be the first to know! Not even General Hammond can know before I do!"

"You have my word," Carter answered, nodding once before entering the observation room again.

* * *

Hammond strode determinedly into the observation room, where Bakura, Carter, and Kaiba were already waiting, gazing almost anxiously at Carter, who had called him there.

"Well?" he asked. "Have you figured out how to help my people yet?"

"Actually, sir, we think so," Ryou called up from the Iso. Room. He joggled his mouse a bit and gazed at the screen. "I don't know why it took so long for Dr. Jackson to translate this though. There's not much here."

"Then read it, hikari!" Bakura demanded, though he didn't sound near as ticked off as earlier.

Ryou nodded, smiling, and read from the screen, "_'This is the Sharat Bakra, the giver of eternal torture and sorrow. The Sharat Bakra shall be given to one of the Tau'ri when he is captured; only then may the leaders of Pheliosta try to change the course of the future. However, if the Pheliostan is unsuccessful and the traveler escapes, he will bring great suffering upon his friends and his world._

_"The Sharat Bakra is a stealer of souls. The souls of the unfortunate become trapped within the eight open sections of the pendant and shall from then on be tortured endlessly. If another unfortunate person happens to be wearing the Sharat Bakra, he shall be possessed by these tormented spirits until he dies from a cerebral breakdown. The trapped souls would remain trapped in the Sharat Bakra indefinitely, or until another person wears the necklace and they may posses him._

_"There is one way the souls may be sent back to their rightful bodies, but it requires a great deal of ancient energy and a priest that is capable of channeling it.'_ The rest is a detailed description of how the ritual has to be performed." He shook his head and gazed up at the two-way mirror. "I don't know where we're going to find a priest for this though. I doubt someone of a monotheistic faith would work."

Bakura was silently, thinking hard, for a few moments before saying simply, "Kaiba."

"What?" said CEO asked in shock.

Bakura turned and grinned at him. "_You_ were a priest in your past life, and I don't know of anyone else that was. Other than Isis and Shadi, but I don't like either of them. So you'll have to do it, Kaiba."

Kaiba stared at him for a few moments before shaking his head vigorously. "You don't honestly expect me to believe that nonsense–"

"Kaiba..." Bakura, extremely stern now, strode over to him and grasped his shoulders. "Kaiba, our friends–companions," he corrected when the blue-eyed one made a face, "have been speaking out of Ryou's mouth for the past two and a half days. I, a spirit from ancient Egypt, have been around for the past two years causing you nothing but trouble. I'm here, Ryou's down there, so we're obviously not the same person. And you say you don't believe in this?"

Kaiba glared at him, obviously hating being forced into something that he truly didn't believe in. "I highly doubt I'm the right one for this," he muttered.

"You're the _only_ one that can do it, Priest," Bakura answered, grabbing his arm to pull him out of the room. But just before he left, he grabbed a microphone, saying, "Ryou, do you have all of the instructions?"

Ryou gazed at the screen again, eyes scanning over it back and forth. "It looks like it."

"Good." With that, Bakura pulled Kaiba out of the room and toward the Iso. Room.

* * *

"Bakura!" Ryou exclaimed as the spirit entered the Iso. Room. Ryou ran up and jumped on him, practically knocking him over. "I missed you! I don't want you to ever leave me again!"

"Ryou! Get…off!" Bakura exclaimed, pushing his hikari back to the floor. "I'm glad to see you too, hikari." He smiled slightly and pulled Kaiba the rest of the way into the room. "Come on, let's get the others out of your head."

Ryou nodded and led them over to the computer where the instructions were plain on the screen. "It tells you how right there. I just hope it's not to late. I can't sense Yugi or Teal'c-san at all."

Bakura quickly scanned over the instruction. "We need something that uses ancient energy, something Kaiba can use…" He smirked and turned to look at Ryou again. "Ask Malik if we can use the Rod."

"Of course you can't use the Rod!" Malik exclaimed as he took control.

Bakura pointedly rolled his eyes. "Don't be an ass, Malik. I want you out of my hikari's body."

"Well, so do I but that doesn't mean you get to use my Rod!"

"Listen, there's no way we're going to use the Ring! Kaiba can't use it!"

"But it's _my_ Rod?"

They were interrupted as a burst of laughter erupted from both Sam and Kaiba. Bakura and Malik-Ryou looked at them in confusion, unsure of what they had done wrong.

"What's so funny?" Bakura asked.

Kaiba tried to calm down and failed miserably, only able to speak after several minutes. "Y-You weren't listening to yourselves, were you?" The two light-haired teens glanced at each other, shrugged, and looked back to Kaiba again for an explanation. "It sounded very…innuendo," Kaiba said, smirking at them. "And I object to your notion of me not being able to use the Ring. I've used one before."

They stared at him in shock for a few moments before bursting out laughing, amazed that he would admit to such a thing, and surprisingly, their laughter was echoed by Carter up in the observation room.

"Wait," Bakura said after a few moments once everyone had calmed down a bit, "we still haven't resolved this. Are we allowed to use the Rod or not, Malik?"

Malik-Ryou wiped tears from his eyes, the result of his laughing too hard. "If it'll get us out of Ryou's body, I guess you can use it."

"Good." Bakura back away from the computer a bit and held his hand out in front of him, a large ball of shadow forming over his palm. After about a minute, the shadows dissipated and the Millennium Rod dropped into his hand.

"How did you do that?" Malik-Ryou asked as Bakura handed the Rod to Kaiba.

"It's a thing called 'Shadow Magic'; ever hear of it?" the spirit answered sarcastically. He looked over the ritual again and waved at them, saying, "Malik, you should give control back to Ryou and have him stand in the middle of the room. Kaiba, you need to stand in front of him with the to of the Rod touching the Sharat Bakra."

"What is this going to do exactly?" Kaiba asked as he and Ryou followed Bakura's instructions.

"Destroy it."

"What?"

"Yeah, it says right here: _If this ritual is performed properly, the Sharat Bakra will explode, freeing the souls from their prison."_

Kaiba actually looked worried for once as he glanced at the necklace. "Wouldn't that hurt one or both of us?"

"No, the necklace would be floating at a safe distance when this happens, and the Rod should protect you anyway."

"Floating?"

"Yes, floating. You'll see. Now, repeat after me." Kaiba nodded, looking back down at the Rod again. "'I, Priest Seto'–"

"I, Priest Seto…"

"–'call upon the magic of the Millennium Rod to aid me'–"

"…call upon the magic of the Millennium Rod to aid me…"

"–'in the release of six trapped souls from their prison in the Sharat Bakra.'"

"… in the release of six trapped souls from their prison in the Sharat Bakra. Good grief…"

The Rod began to glow and enveloped both Kaiba and you in light, and suddenly, Kaiba appeared to be wearing the clothes of an ancient priest, headdress and all. He looked down and then back at the glowing golden item, muttering, "Stupid magic."

"That's odd," Bakura agreed, staring at Kaiba's new clothes. "The Rod must recognize you, Kaiba, and it wanted you to look like you should be holding it."

Kaiba rolled his eyes, though he didn't look entirely uncomfortable in the new clothes, and turned his attention back to the Rod. "Let's just get this over with already."

* * *

"Are we sure this will work?" Hammond asked as he watched this from above.

"Well, sir, it's the only thing we've got. If it doesn't work, we may not be able to do anything other than keep Ryou in isolation indefinitely," Carter answered, also watching. Then, in a sadder tone, she added, "And Seto would be the next victim."

"You've grown very fond of him," Hammond remarked.

"I have." She leaned over, hands on the computer desk, looking closer down into the room. "I think they're actually starting now."

This was said about the moment the Rod began glowing and Kaiba was re-clothed. He and Bakura stood talking for a few moments, and then Kaiba began moving again with Bakura waving at different places, saying things to go with it. The 'priest' slowly walked around Ryou, repeating Bakura's words, touching the Rod to different spots on the floor. When he'd traveled all the back to stand in front of the white-haired teen, a glowing golden circle appeared on the ground around them with lines crossing it, forming a six-pointed star. Kaiba seemed slightly surprised at this, but Ryou didn't; he seemed extremely relaxed, as though in a trance, and his hair was floating slightly about his head.

Kaiba's head snapped towards Bakura when the spirit said something, a small sneer on his face. The priest answered curtly and looked away, lifting the cord of the Sharat Bakra over Ryou's head and seemingly hanging it in the air, though it must have been held up by either Shadow Magic or the magic of the necklace itself. While he chanted and waved the Rod around in unknown patterns, an orb of light appear in every corner of the glowing star, each one the color of a different trapped soul. At the same time, Ryou himself began to float few inches above the ground, still in a trance-like state, and it looked as though a field of anti-gravity had been formed just around him. Bakura looked slightly shocked as he noticed this, but after a quick scan over the text on the computer screen, he nodded and continued giving Kaiba instructions.

The priest slowly slipped the sheath off of the knife part of the Rod and made a couple of slashing motions between Ryou and the Sharat Bakra. Then he walked around the floating necklace once between it and Ryou and tapped the necklace three times with the rod. A small orb of gold lightly formed around the Sharat Bakra; then they heard a small explosion and the colored orbs that were the trapped souls flew off into the base.

* * *

Bakura ran forward as the golden circle on the floor disappeared and Ryou fell to the ground; the yami caught him before he hit.

Ryou blearily blinked his eyes open, gazing up at Bakura. " 'Kura?"

"That's me. I'm right here, Ryou," Bakura said with a small smile.

"Everyone's gone, 'Kura. They're all free now."

"That's good. You'll be okay, hikari. Why don't you go to sleep?"

Ryou nodded once and promptly passed out. Bakura glanced at Kaiba as he stood up with Ryou in his arms, vaguely amused to see that the brunette's clothes still weren't back to normal.

"Let's go see if everyone's all right."

* * *

THE END

Yay! I finished this episode! Hurrah!

Sorry for how late this one is. I had difficulty writing it (though why that is I do not know, for I'd been wanting to write it for a long time).

Now, on to episode ten!


	5. Yami Fifth Part 1

Calai'di–This one is a lot lighter and upbeat (at least, for the first ten pages), more like a Jack O'Neill type thing, so have fun reading!

Note: Aghhh! Did you know that Michael Shanks (aka. Daniel Jackson) does Thor's voice! Not right, not right, not right…

2nd Note: I started writing this _long_ before Sci-Fi aired "Gemini", so I most definitely didn't copy them. If anything, they copied me, and not just with this one. If you want to know what I meant by that, email me or tell me in a review and I'll email you back to explain. And if you've seen "Gemini" just forget it while you read this. It never happened in SG-M's world, so this is pretty much just starting over with that story line.

3rd Note: -sigh- All right, for my intents and purposes, the real Major Carter will always be called 'Carter' in this chap (except by the other characters) and the next and the Replicator Carter will either be called 'Samantha' or 'Repli-Carter'. This is so you'll know the difference between them.

* * *

_Previously on Stargate SG-1: The Asgard created a time dilation device that was supposed to trap the Replicators for hundreds of years. However, the Replicators interfered and reversed the way the device worked, so instead of them living for hundreds of years while the rest of the universe lived for the time of a few days, the rest of the universe lived a few days while they lived for hundreds of years (does that make sense?). This enabled them to advance and they began to create humanoid form Replicators. The Asgard called on SG-1 the help them reverse the device back to the original setting. With the help of one of the human-form Replicators, named Fifth, they succeeded, but betrayed Fifth's trust when they left him behind._

_About two years later (in "New Order Parts 1 & 2"), the Replicators escaped their prison planet and began causing problems again. The Asgard called on SG-1 again to help with the problem and protect their planet, the last planet in the galaxy that they could inhabit, from the human-Replicators. However, Carter was captured by Fifth, who had never forgiven her for leaving him behind, and was tortured over and over again because of this hate; eventually, he revealed that the reason he hated her was because he really loved her and had been extremely hurt when she betrayed him. Jack, who had recently had the Archive of the Ancients downloaded into his brain again, told the Asgard how to build a weapon that would completely destroy the Replicators. This weapon worked quite well, and Fifth was forced to release Carter and escape before he was destroyed. Nonetheless, he had not forgotten Carter or his love for her, so in the end, unknown to SG-1 or the Asgard, he created another human-form Replicator that looked just like Carter so he'd never be betrayed again…_

* * *

**Episode 5: Yami Fifth Part 1**

Colonel O'Neill strode cheerfully into Carter's workroom, noticing that Kaiba was in here again, learning first hand about the naquadah generator this time. Teal'c enter after him, his expression and stance proclaiming his pleasure for what would happen.

"Gooooooood morning, Campers!" Jack said loudly, startling the major and her assistant. Carter looked up from where she was working and smiled warmly.

"Good morning, sir."

"Carter, what are you doing?" Jack asked exasperatedly.

"I was showing Seto how the naquadah generator works. He's really a fast–"

"Carter, we're on vacation. Take a break for once." O'Neill glanced back once at Teal'c. "And since we're on vacation, I thought I might as well give you the chance to come with me and Teal'c this time."

Carter smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, sir. I think I'd rather stay here. Seto still has a lot to learn and–"

"That's right, he's on vacation too," O'Neill said suddenly. "All right. Kaiba, have you ever been fishing?"

Kaiba stared up at him like he was crazy to suggest such a thing and slowly shook his head. "No, I never had time."

Jack grinned and suddenly, Kaiba's arm was caught in a death grip. "Well guess what? Today's your lucky day! 'Cause Teal'c and I are going fishing and now you are too!" He quickly pulled Kaiba out of the room and down the hall, ignoring the teen's protests.

"Hey Teal'c, who else should we tor–I mean, take fishing?" Jack asked once they reached an elevator.

"Yugi!" Kaiba said, figuring that if he had to suffer, his rival should have to also.

Jack grinned as he opened the elevator door. "That's a great idea! And we can bug Daniel while we're at it!"

When they got to Daniel's office, both Yugi and Ryou were there, helping the doctor catalogue some of the offworld archaeological finds. Atemu and Bakura were dueling in a corner, though they would occasionally call out a translation for various texts on the artifacts. Daniel glanced up when the three entered, saw the expression on Kaiba's face, and smiled knowingly.

"Going fishing again, Jack?"

"Yep. Wanna come with?"

"No, I'm just fine here, thanks," Daniel said, returning to his work. Their conversation had alerted the other four to Jack's presence, and they were now staring at Kaiba with confusion.

O'Neill turned his attentions on the two teens sitting in the room. "Hey Ryou, ever been fishing?"

"Yes," Ryou answered, blushing slightly. "I went with my father a couple of times when we were living in England."

Jack's face fell slightly, but he was not one to be intimidated. "Yugi?"

"No, Grampa never had the time to take me," the boy answered, and before he knew it, his wrist had been grabbed and he was pulled out of his chair; Atemu instantly got to his feet as well.

"Well today's your lucky day!" O'Neill exclaimed happily. " 'Cause T' and I and going fishing, and Kaiba's coming, and now you're coming too!"

"Aghhh, no, O'Neill-san, wait!" Yugi protested, pulling desperately away from Jack. He noticed Atemu was just standing in place, snickering at his predicament, so he stuck his tongue out and pouted mockingly. "Yami, you traitor!"

"Hey, I am a yami, right?" Atemu countered. He and Bakura high-fived once before he returned to his soul room to leave his hikari to his own devices. Yugi and Ryou shook their heads in disbelief–it was odd to see the two yamis actually being friendly to one another–before the former was dragged out of the room. O'Neill dragged the two teens a short distance down the hall until Kaiba finally realized his strength and wrenched his arm out of the colonel's grasp.

"Oh, Kaiba," O'Neill said, completely unfazed. "Did you for–" And suddenly, a white light enveloped him and Yugi and they disappeared. Teal'c stared at the spot where they had been standing for a few moments, then walked calmly back to Daniel's room and took the telephone receiver off the wall.

"General Hammond," he said simply. After a few moments of silence, he went on, "General, I believe the Asgard have returned."

* * *

"–get something?" Jack finished before he looked around and sighed unhappily as he saw that he was once again aboard Thor's ship, and the reason probably wasn't for a friendly visit. Beside him, Atemu had taken control of his host, as he was more adept in strange situations like this. O'Neill stepped down from the teleportation platform and stared down the hallway in front of them.

"Thor, buddy?" he called, exasperation very apparent in his tone. "Now _really_ isn't a good time." He walked slowly down the hall, his head glancing left and right into different rooms.

"Colonel, where are we?" Atemu asked quietly.

"We are on an Asgard ship, probably one of Thor's, when we are supposed to be on our way to Minnesota," Jack answered as they entered a large room at the end of the hallway. In the middle of the room, a short gray alien sat calmly in an advanced looking chair.

"It is good to see you as well, O'Neill," Thor said softly.

"Yeah, sure. What's the problem this time, Thor?"

Thor blinked once, an oddly unsynchronized action, and turned his gaze on Atemu. "I do not believe we have met."

"No, we haven't. My name is Pharaoh Atemu," the pharaoh said proudly–even after five months he still got a kick out of using his real name, "but I'm also called Yugi. I'm assuming you're Thor."

"Yes, and I have heard about you, Pharaoh. I believe you are the Duel Monsters World Champion?"

"You know about Duel Monsters!"

"I am a fan of the game, yes."

"That is so cool–"

"I'm sure it is and that you two will be great friends," Jack interrupted, "but would you mind telling us why we're here?"

Thor nodded and blinked. "The war with the Replicators is not progressing as well as we had hoped. One of the human-form Replicators escaped before we could destroy him, and now he has a large army of modified bug-form Replicators. Unfortunately, these new Replicators are immune to the Ancient weapon you made for us."

"Oh! I've read this one," Atemu murmured, his forehead furrowed in thought.

"This would normally would not be a problem," Thor went on, "as we could modify the frequency of the disrupter to match the Replicators, but each time we do, they modify themselves again. This has been going on for sometime."

"All right, these Replicators are new and improved and you can't do anything about it. So where do _we_ come in?" O'Neill asked, trying to get back to the point he was trying to make.

"The Asgard have recently learned of the attack on your world by Anubis, and the weapon you used against him. We feel that this weapon would be extremely useful against the Replicators."

O'Neill and Atemu stayed silent for a few moments before the latter finally spoke up. "That could be difficult."

"Please explain."

"Well, it's kind of in pieces," Atemu said apologetically. He suddenly retreated and Yugi took over the narrative. "You see, the weapons are actually seven magical items called the Millennium Items. Each has its own power, and each looks different, too. This is one–" he pointed at the puzzle– "and five of the others are at the SGC. When they're combined, they create an enormous amount of power; that's the weapon you heard about, Thor-san."

Thor blinked at the unfamiliar title. "I'm assuming a different person owns each of these Items?"

"Yep, and some people have more than one." He was silent for a moment, then added, "I have two, Bakura has two, and Ryou and Malik each have one. So all but one are at the SGC."

Thor nodded once and shifted a crystal that sat on the arm of his chair; almost instantly, they could hear voices from the teleportation room down the hall.

"What the–"

"Hey, why are you here? I thought–"

"Where is here?"

"I think I've lost it…"

"Hey, if anyone's insane here, it's me…and Malik."

"Bakura? Guys!" Yugi called. The arguing voices got louder, and soon, the rest of SG-M stepped into the room. Yugi smiled as they entered and said brightly, "Hi guys!"

"Yugi, what the hell is going on here?" Bakura demanded angrily as he glanced around the room, eyes pausing slightly on Thor as they passed over him.

"Guys, this is Thor. He's an Asgard. Thor-san, this is Malik, Kaiba, and the Tok'ra Bakura."

"Yugi! Don't tell _everyone_!" Bakura hissed. Then he turned his attention back on Thor and nodded slightly. "I've heard about you, Supreme Commander."

"I, however, have not heard of you among the Tok'ra."

"That's because I was hidden on Earth, and no one but certain appointed Tok'ra were supposed to know." Here he glared at Yugi and noticed that Atemu had taken over again. "All right, Pharaoh, what's going on here?"

Thor blinked in confusion as Atemu answered, "Well, it looks like the Items are needed again." He ran through everything Thor had said (except the Duel Monsters parts) and Bakura immediately spoke up.

"We need Shadi."

Everyone but Thor stared at him in shock, several wondering whether it was actually Ryou speaking. Bakura stared defiantly back and shrugged.

"You said we need to do the ritual again. I say we need all of the Items to do that. Though–" he suddenly looked thoughtful and his fingers began playing with the Ring– "I bet the Shadow Games would be enough to destroy these things."

"Bakura, that's not a god idea," Atemu warned lowly.

"I'd know what I was doing," Bakura answered indignantly. He pulled a red-bladed knife out of the air and twirled it in his fingers. "I wouldn't _kill _anyone. You forget, I _am_ Tok'ra."

"Yeah, a psychotic Tok'ra," Atemu muttered.

"And proud to be," Bakura agreed. "Well, anyway, if we're going to do the ritual, we need the Scale, which Shadi has, and I'm not so sure he's all that keen on associating with me."

"Let's not do the ritual again," Malik said quietly. They noticed one of his hands had not quite subtly moved to protectively clutch the Rod. "It was too weird for me."

Kaiba snickered and pointed at Malik's hand. "You just don't want me to get the Rod again." Malik glared at him, though he didn't say anything in his defense, and he even blushed a bit to show that the observation had been correct.

"All right, we won't do the ritual; we'll stick to the Shadow Games instead," Bakura said loudly. "Now what?"

"Now we must go to the Asgard home galaxy to join the war against the Replicators," Thor answered. He made a move to activate the engines with his crystal, but Jack quickly stopped him.

"Hey, what about food and weapons…and _my_ team?"

Thor blinked and moved the crystal a tiny bit. "Half of your weapons, food stores, and the rest of SG-1 have been beamed aboard. Is there anything else, O'Neill? We must leave as soon as possible."

* * *

Hammond should have been used to this by now; after all, it had happened at least three times before. And at least Thor had restrained his "beaming" this time. Only _half_ of the food and weapons had been "beamed" instead of all of it like in previous instances. The report that both SG-1 and SG-M were now aboard Thor's ship had just come in when a hologram of O'Neill appeared in front of him in his office.

"Colonel O'Neill, what is going on?" Hammond asked as soon as the image had formed.

"Hi George, nice to see you too," Jack answered lightly. He glanced backward at something the general couldn't see and winced; it didn't take an expert to know that Atemu or Bakura or both were telling him off for not getting straight to the point. He went on, "Well, it looks like the Replicators are a problem again. Somehow, one of the human ones got away and rigged his set of bugs to withstand the Ancient weapon I made for the Asgard. Thor thinks the Items will be useful somehow."

"What do you think?"

"I have my doubts, sir. I don't see how they'll work any better then Goa'uld weapons."

"What about them?" Hammond asked, referring to the Item holders. Jack glanced back again.

"I think they think it's just another tournament. In other words, Atemu and Bakura are acting like kings–"

He was suddenly shoved out of the way by a smaller body.

"We're fine, don't worry, everything's under control," Atemu said quickly. He suddenly frowned and turned abruptly around, poised to attack someone. "Bakura! Put that down _right_ now!–" Hammond thought he sounded a bit like someone's mother in the way he said this– "No! You wouldn't _dare_! Bakura!" Atemu's image suddenly disappeared. O'Neill shrugged and turned back to Hammond.

"Wha–?"

"We'll be fine, General," O'Neill said to answer the unasked question. "Right now, Carter and Daniel are trying to break them up, if you wanted to know. If we have any problems, we'll call you." He glanced back once and winced again; Hammond wasn't sure at what. "Well, gotta go!" Jack said hastily. He waved and disappeared…and then reappeared again. "Since this is supposed to be our vacation, can we have double when we get back?"

"We'll see," Hammond answered, almost sternly. Jack nodded once and disappeared again.

* * *

Once Bakura stopped trying to shoot Atemu with one of the Zats, though it was only after Ryou intervened, Thor activated the hyper-drive and they started off towards the Asgard home galaxy. The pharaoh immediately challenged the Asgard to a duel to see how well he'd actually studied the game, and surprisingly, Thor had his own deck. He stared with amusement at the pharaoh's reaction as he brought out his cards and started shuffling.

"Battle City rules?" Atemu asked as he shuffled his own cards; Yugi giggled in the back of his mind at how shaky his voice actually was. Thor nodded and a table hologram materialized in the air between them. Atemu touched it briefly before placing his deck down and drawing five cards; Thor copied him and, since they'd already decided he would go first, drew one more and three down on the table. Atemu frowned and placed a few of his own cards down, not saying much about either set.

And thus progressed one of the most heated duels in gaming history.

For a short time, Kaiba and Bakura watched the duel progress in a state of awe, mostly out of shock at Thor's skill, but eventually, they got bored and went off to do their own things to get ready. Ryou came out, and he, Bakura, and Malik set off to explore the ship on their own. Carter started instructing Kaiba on the naquadah generator once more, Teal'c went off to try his kel'no'reem again with Daniel following him, and O'Neill began to watch the duel and try to learn how to play Duel Monsters. Now, the best way to learn this particular game is not by watching the King of Games and another tournament-rate duelist go all out against each other. Needless to say, Jack quickly became lost.

Of course, Thor eventually lost; Atemu wasn't the King of Games for nothing. The Pharaoh then started explaining about how the Millennium Items worked and about how he and Bakura were actually separate from their hikaris. Thor seemed fascinated with the whole concept, even though Atemu had to explain several time that they weren't Goa'ulds.

* * *

Bakura himself was having a lot of fun exploring the ship with his two friends, or the closest people to friends he had. They made sure they didn't mess anything up…okay, Ryou made sure the two Egyptians didn't do anything to the ship, and they got along just fine. In fact, no one was really noticing anything around them until…

"Hi guys!"

Bakura jumped around, aiming an open Zat at something behind him, but he instantly relaxed a bit as he saw whom it was.

"Oh, Samantha, it's only you," he said dully as he closed the Zat and slid it back into his pocket. Samantha nodded silently and stared at them, an odd expression on her face.

"Who did you think it was, Yami-kun?" Ryou asked innocently, though his eyes were gleaming with mischief. "And why would you want to shoot Kaiba with a Zat?"

Bakura shot his hikari a warning glance. "I didn't think it was Kaiba. I didn't know who it was. That was why I had the Zat out."

"Wow, I didn't think you could sound that calm, Bakura," Malik said sarcastically, earning his own glare from the spirit. He turned his attention back on Samantha. "So why are you here, Major? I thought you and Kaiba were discussing all that brainy stuff that you like to discuss."

"We finished early. Kaiba said he'd go take a nap," Carter answered. "I thought I might look for you three."

Ryou frowned at her and nervously sidled back to his yami. "Something's not right about her," he whispered shakily, gripping Bakura's arm. "I can't sense Jolinar."

"I know, I can't either," the yami muttered back. He stared sternly down at the teen. "I want you to go back to your soul room, Ryou."

"But–"

Bakura shook his head, the same commanding expression on his face. "No 'buts'. Go, now." Ryou stared pleadingly up at his yami, but he knew it was no use to object, so instead he kissed Bakura lightly and disappeared. Carter stared in shock for a few moments at the spot where he'd been standing until she realized why she was there.

"So, have you seen everything yet?" she asked casually. Bakura narrowed his eyes at her and glared at Malik to keep him from saying anything.

"No, we haven't, Major," he said stiffly. "But we don't really need your help at the moment. Thanks anyway." With that, he turned and began to walk away. "Come on, Malik!"

Malik shrugged and waved to Samantha before following his friend. "What was that about?"

"That is not Samantha," Bakura answered. He glanced back at the woman still standing with a confused look on her face. "And I know it's not a good thing either."

* * *

Back in Thor's control room, the real Samantha was having the time of her life. In five months, the teens had never shown any of them their duel disks, but now Atemu had decided it was high time to bring them out again. Since he'd stored his and Bakura's in the weaponry, both had been beamed aboard, and now he and Yugi were giving the others a real show. At the present, both had a 'Dark Magician' on the field, but Yugi also had a multiplied 'Kuriboh' and two face down cards, and Atemu had three face down cards and the 'Celtic Guardian' in defense mode. No one had lost life points. So it was pretty much a stalemate and Yugi's turn. He drew and grinned at his yami.

"I activate 'Wave-Motion Cannon'!" Yugi exclaimed, placing the card in his duel disk. Atemu stared at the card in shock as it formed on the field in before him; he didn't know his aibou had cards like that! "When I send this card to the Graveyard, it inflicts one thousand points of damage on your life points for every standby phase that passed since I put it on the field!"

"I know!" Atemu exclaimed in frustration. It was pretty much a countdown card, since the owner could discard it at anytime, which gave the pharaoh only four turns to pull himself out of this mess. He drew and glared at the card with annoyance; it wasn't helpful at all. "I play 'Alpha the Magnet Warrior' in defense mode."

"Not good enough, Yami!" Yugi chided playfully. He drew and placed the card in his hand. "That's one. End turn."

Atemu drew his card and smiled. "I tribute 'Alpha the Magnet Warrior' and 'Celtic Guardian' for my 'Buster Blader' in attack mode!" he proclaimed as the warrior appeared on the field. Yugi frowned at the new monster but didn't say anything. "'Buster Blader' will attack your 'Dark Magician'–"

"Activate 'Negate Attack'!" Yugi answered. Atemu frowned as his attack was stopped short by the magic card.

"End turn."

"And that's one more turn gone," Yugi stated as he drew another card. Smiling, he pushed another button on the duel disk, revealing another face down card. "Reveal 'Just Desserts'!"

"What!" the pharaoh exclaimed. A ghostly hand shot out of the revealed card and drained Atemu of a thousand life points. He glared questioningly at his hikari as the hand retreated back to its card. "Why do you have that card! Don't you remember that last time we saw it!"

"Yeah, and I thought it had a good effect then too," Yugi answered. "End turn. Just one more left."

Atemu had noticed this as well. Now that he had been drain of a thousand life points, Yugi only had to inflict three thousand more and he'd lose. Just one more turn either way.

"You've been hanging around the thief too much," he muttered. He heard his American friends draw their breaths as he drew…and smiled.

"Nope, it's over now, Yugi," he said. "Reveal 'Defense Paralysis'!"

"What!"

"This changes your 'Kuriboh' into attack mode! And now, 'Polymerization'!"

"You're making 'Dark Paladin'," Yugi said dully once he'd realized what would happen.

"Correct, Yugi-boy!" Atemu said, using Pegasus' nickname for him and scowling for doing it. "Summon 'Dark Paladin', attack mode and activate 'Instant Attack' and 'Diffusion Wave-Motion'! This enables my monster to attack now and all of your monsters! But that's not all!"

"There's more?" Yugi whined.

"Activate 'Black Pendant' on 'Dark Paladin'! This increases his attack by five hundred! Now, 'Dark Paladin', attack all of his monsters!"

"Darn it!" Yugi exclaimed as his life points dropped to negative one hundred. "Why can't I ever beat you, Yami?"

"Because I'm the best," Atemu answered shamelessly.

"Yeah, and not just at duels," Yugi muttered, glancing slightly up at his yami and grinning. Atemu smiled and pounced on him, twisting his fist playfully into Yugi's head. They wrestled a bit on the ground for a few moments until Bakura and Malik walked in.

"Major, how'd you get back here before us?" Malik asked, his face filled with confusion; so was Carter's after he said this. Bakura whacked him over the head.

"Idiot, she never left. I told you that wasn't Samantha," he muttered.

"What wasn't me?" Carter asked suspiciously.

"We met someone that looked just like you," Bakura said. SG-1 was suddenly on their feet, but he didn't notice as he became aware of the look-alikes lying on the floor. "Yugi, is that _my_ duel disk?"

Yugi instantly gulped and pulled the machine off his arm, pushing it aside. The easily identifiable drawing of the Millennium Ring was visible on the side of it, carved into the metal and colored with blood. Bakura reached down and quickly grabbed his duel disk, glaring at Yugi for even touching the marked device.

"Hey, more about this 'other Carter' you saw," Jack demanded.

"Well, she looked like Samantha, acted like Samantha, and sounding like Samantha," Bakura asked sardonically. "But both Ryou and I couldn't sense Jolinar, so it couldn't have been her."

"That's…odd," Daniel said. "I mean, our robot counterparts were destroyed, right?"

"That's what I thought, but I've been here the whole time," Carter agreed.

"Yeah, you don't have an evil twin or something, do you Carter?" O'Neill asked.

"Uh, no," Carter answered bewilderedly. She turned back to the two Egyptians. "Did this 'other me' do or say anything weird?"

"She said Kaiba was taking a nap," Malik said, since that would have been an odd thing to say for anyone who had been around Kaiba long enough.

"She didn't seem to recognize us," Bakura answered, glaring at Malik, "or talk much for that matter."

"Well, that's pretty odd," Jack commented; Carter punched him playfully in the arm in response. Rubbing his arm where she'd hit him, he went on, "So, where was this 'other Carter'?"

Bakura and Malik led SG-1 back to the last place they had seen the 'other Carter', which was a different place than Ryou had seen her, since she had been following them around. But, of course, she wasn't there, nor was she anywhere else that they looked. After what seemed to be half the trip to the galaxy, O'Neill finally spoke the question that was on everyone's mind.

"All right, where'd she go?"

* * *

"Samantha, are they here?" asked a soft voice out of the darkness. Samantha walked closer to the voice, stopping in front of it's source: a young man with pale skin and dark curly hair who was sitting atop a throne made of Replicator blocks.

"Of course, my love, your plans always succeed," she answered, bowing slightly. (_-points- See? _This _is why I said to forget "Gemini"! -sits back and watches intently-_)

"You can come closer, Samantha," the man said with a smile; he always loved when the woman called him that. Samantha returned the expression and hurried forward to sit on his lap and wrap her arms around his neck. But there was something a bit off with her expression, even though she was smiling.

Fifth noticed this and briefly ran a finger down her cheek. "Is there something wrong?"

"SG-1 is not the only team here," she whispered, sounding unhappy for whatever reason.

"Who else is here?"

Samantha looked away at the floor. "I do not know who they are, but they're very strange and look to be about seventeen to eighteen human years old at the most. I meet what I thought was three of them, two with white hair and one blonde, but then the younger looking white-haired one disappeared before my eyes!"

"Don't lie to me, Samantha," he warned lowly.

"I am not! I would swear my existence on it. The blonde mentioned another human, though I have never heard the name in my short life. I believe he said the name 'Kaiba'. Do you know who these humans might be, Fifth?"

Fifth stared at the floor for a few moments, brow furrowed slightly as he concentrated. "I have heard of them, though only briefly, among Asgard communications. They are a new team from the human's Stargate base, and they must be quite special to be so young." The man smiled warmly and gently pushed her off his lap, holding her hips. "The two best human team have been brought into our trap, leaving Earth practically defenseless. Tell our children they can begin the assault on the humans."

Samantha pecked Fifth on the cheek before scurrying off to accomplish her task. The young man smiled evilly in the darkness and reached out a hand to pet a large, mechanical bug.

"She will pay for hating me. She will pay with her planet!"

* * *

When the eight humans arrived back in Thor's control room, each was looking greatly confused, especially Bakura and Malik. Thor blinked at them and cocked his head as they entered.

"Was your search successful, O'Neill?" he asked, staring wide-eyed as Atemu and Ryou materialized next to their other halves.

"Nope, didn't see a thing," Jack answered. "Couldn't you just scan the ship or something?"

"I have already tried," Thor answered. An image of the ship's interior appeared on one of the screens behind him, showing a small group of blue dots where the control room was. He zoomed in on the room, on only nine dots appeared on the screen out of the eleven beings standing there.

"As you can see, my scanners are unable to pick up your friends while they are in their 'spirit form', and they are otherwise only able to detect organic life-forms. If you were unsuccessful in finding this 'other Carter', then my ship's sensors will not be able to detect it either."

Carter stared at the screen for a few moments before frowning and speaking up, "We know the sensors can't find anything, but what about the Ring?"

Most of the others stared at her in shock, wondering why they hadn't thought of that before, but Bakura already had his eyes close and was holding the Ring out in front of him. Ryou placed his hands over his yami's and also closed his eyes.

"It's not working very well up here," Bakura murmured after a few moments. Ryou nodded, agreeing with him, and the Ring suddenly pointed at each of them in turn.

Ryou shook his head and took his hands away. "It's working properly, but it won't find the other Samantha we saw. Sorry, Colonel."

"But that means that, somehow, the thing got off this ship," Bakura went on, letting go of the Ring so it fell against his chest.

"It could not," Thor said. He blinked and the ship suddenly dropped out of hyperspace, and another Asgard immediately appeared on the screen next to the map of the ship.

"Supreme Commander Thor," greeted the Asgard.

"High Councilor Tyr," Thor answered, inclining his head a bit. "We are ready to join the fight–'

"There is no fight," Tyr interrupted. Thor blinked in surprise, a movement echoed by the other members of the room.

"I was told to bring SG-1 immediately," Thor said carefully, as though checking that he'd heard his orders correctly.

"Yes, however, the Replicators have left our world for now. SG-1 is no longer needed."

Thor frowned as best he could as he looked back at the Tau'ri. "This does not bode well."

"Well? What do we do now? Sight-see?" Jack asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Councilor Tyr," Thor said as he turned back around, "perhaps we should–" But the other Asgard was not on the screen. In his place was a smiling human face, looking almost cherubic with his shining cheeks. It took a few moments for anyone to recognize him, but when Carter did, she automatically recoiled.

"It's Fifth," she murmured. Kaiba stepped forward and hugged her from behind to comfort her, noticing that she was obviously not comfortable with whoever that was on the screen. Fifth, of course, looked mildly hurt when he saw this, but not near as much as Carter felt he should have.

"Have you forgotten me already, Major?" he asked quietly. Kaiba glared up at him when this just made her recoil more. Fifth smiled down at them and when on, "No matter. I understand perfectly how you feel about me. You've already told me."

"What do you want, Fifth?" she demanded, also glaring at him.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm glad to see you and your friends, Major."

Carter stared at him in shock and disbelief. "Why?"

"Because it means you are here and not able to defend your planet," Fifth answered simply. His eyes passed briefly over the rest of them before stopping on Carter again. "I believe you have not introduced some of your friends."

"You don't need to know who we are," Bakura growled, "just that we're here to kick your ass."

Fifth smiled grimly. "You should be more worried about your planet then what you want to do to me." They all recoiled as Replicator bug crawled across Fifth's side of the screen, but he seemed not to notice. "I suppose I should tell you that my brethren are already on their way to your planet. It is not possible to catch up to them before they reach it."

Malik suddenly stepped forward, staring calculatingly at him. "Do you know anything about there being a second Samantha, Fifth?"

Fifth was slightly shocked to be spoken to so nicely, as well as by the question asked, for it took him a few moments to answer. "No. Major Carter is the only one that I know of that exists."

"Why do you want to harm Earth?" Ryou asked, also speaking with minor respect.

"It's because of her!" Fifth answered, pointing down at Carter. The rest looked mildly shocked, but Carter only stared defiantly back at him.

"What did she do to you?" Yugi asked.

Fifth frowned, staring at the three hikaris questioningly, obviously wondering why they cared. "I loved her," he finally said, "and she wouldn't love me back. And she betrayed me!"

Everyone looked at Carter, either expecting her to answer or wondering what the hell Fifth was talking about.

"I already told you I'm sorry about betraying you, Fifth," Carter said softly, leaning back into Kaiba's embrace, "but I've also told you that I can't love you. And that still holds true."

"No, you love _him_, don't you?" Fifth commented acidly, glaring at Kaiba.

"Well…yes…"

"Then your planet is doomed." With that, Fifth's image disappeared and the screen went blank. Jack smiled grimly and turned to look at the others.

"Great. Now what?"

* * *

Jack paced back and forth in front of Thor's control panel, looking more and more irritated each time he turned around. They were heading _back_ to earth as fast as the ship's hyperdrive engines could take them, though Thor said that they still would not get to earth fast enough, but they'd get there soon enough that the Replicators would still be in trouble. But after a few more minutes, Jack sighed loudly and stopped running a hand through his short hair.

"So how'd the Replicators get the _chance_ to improve themselves anyway?" he asked Thor exasperatedly.

Thor blinked at him and cocked his head. "I believe they used something you call 'guess-and-check,'" he answered.

"You mean they guessed the right frequency?" Carter asked incredulously.

"I believe it took them several tries."

"So, they just…guessed?" Daniel asked, sounding just as shocked. "But wouldn't that takes years? I mean, I'm no mathematician, but wouldn't there be millions of possibilities?"

"More like billions," Carter confirmed.

"The Replicators are able to process information much faster than even our systems can; it would only take them a matter of days to check about a million possibilities," Thor answered.

"Great, so how long would it take you to figure out a way to stop them?" Jack asked.

Thor blinked. "I do not know. It may not even be possible."

Jack sighed and began pacing again. "I say again. Great."

* * *

When the Asgard ship finally dropped out of hyperspace, the eight humans saw a very interesting sight. There was a large Replicator ship drifting in orbit and in front of it, shooting at it and doing a considerable amount of damage, was the Prometheus.

"Yes!" Jack exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. "Thank you Colonel Reynolds!"

"Should the Prometheus be inflicting that much damage to a Replicator ship?" Carter asked as the Tau'ri ship blasted another giant hole in the Replicator one.

"It should not." Thor blinked and moved a jewel on his control console. "This is Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard hailing the ship Prometheus. Please respond."

They waited a few moments before a loud, triumphant shout was heard over the open channel. _"Wah-hoooo!__ It's good to hear from you, Thor!"_

Thor blinked and looked back at Jack. "Does he often behave in this manner?"

Jack grinned and stepped forward. "It's good to see you too, Reynolds! Not getting to carried away, are we?"

_"Colonel O'Neill? It's good to hear from you too! I don't know what you keep bragging about; these Replicator guys are nothing!"_

The Tau'ri smiled slightly at each other at this; Reynolds probably had no idea how hard it really was to kill the Replicators.

"That's good to hear!" Jack answered. "How the hell are you causing so much damage?"

_"I don't know, but as long as they're destroyed, does it really matter?"_

"True," Bakura said, liking how this battle was going. From what he'd heard about the Replicators, he really hated them already.

"They shouldn't be causing that much damage to a Replicator ship," Carter commented again, practically leaning against the screen to get a closer look.

"Can't you just enjoy this, Major?" O'Neill asked exasperatedly. "Would it really kill you to be optimistic once in a while?"

"Major Carter is correct. Your ship's weapons should not be capable of this kind of damage," Thor spoke up, his eyes slightly narrowed as he watched.

"Uh, sir, I can't believe I'm suggesting this but...maybe we should hail the Replicator ship," Carter suggested, shocking everyone.

"I can't believe you're suggesting it either," Jack said incredulously. "Now, I know it's not you but...you are joking, right Carter?"

Carter shook her head, looking somewhat sheepish. "Incredibly, I'm not, sir."

"It's an idea," Daniel agreed, causing the others to stare at him with the same amount of shock.

"You two must be sick," Jack muttered in exasperation, shaking his head.

"I like the idea," Kaiba said softly. Carter smiled at him and sent Jack a knowing look.

"You see, sir? Even Seto is okay with it."

Jack shook his head and walked slowly in a small circle. "He's bias. I still think you're all nuts!"

"Well, we might as well try," Carter answered. She turned to Thor and continued, "Um, can you open a channel to the Replicator ship?"

"I can try," Thor answered softly. He moved two of the crystals on his control chair and one of the screens behind him lit up. The Tau'ri were both relieved and nervous to see a Replicator-bug crawl across the screen almost as soon as the picture formed, and then they saw with disappointment that there were no human-form Replicators visible on the image. O'Neill grinned with relief and walked forward to tap lightly on the screen.

"See, told you it was a bad idea. No one's even–"

"Hello."

Jack started slightly at the new, but very familiar, voice and looked back at the screen only to jump away in shock. On the screen was an almost exact replica of Major Carter except that she was wearing clothes similar to the other human-form Replicators and had a somewhat passive look on her face. The members of SG-1 and SG-M looked back and forth between the two Carters, all of them looking extremely confused.

Bakura finally stepped forward and crossed his arms before his chest as he tried to look as threatening as possible–which for him was quite something. "Who are you and why do you look like Major Carter?"

"I am also Samantha Carter," Repli-Carter answered. "There are two of us."

"I think a more appropriate question would be _what_ are you?" Atemu asked before anyone else could.

"I was about to say that," Jack muttered.

"I am a human-form Replicator. I was made by Fifth," Samantha answered calmly.

"WHAT!" was the chorused shout of most of the room's occupants.

Bakura scowled and looked back at Kaiba, who was also looking rather upset. "Well, how do you feel about this?"

Kaiba glared up at the screen and absently reached down to take the real Carter's hand. "I think I'm mildly jealous and I'd like the Rod back for Malik."

"How come?" Malik whined, holding the Rod more protectively now.

"I'd like to have something with which I can cause some serious damage to this 'Fifth'," the CEO answered simply. In the background, Jack looked as though he'd like to agree with that statement.

"Please, do not harm my master," Samantha said quietly. "He is not all bad."

They gawked at her, and Jack looked somewhat relieved. "Well, at least she doesn't act like Carter. I have no problem destroying her now."

"Sir?" Carter asked with a small puzzled smile.

"Well, it would almost be like destroying one of my team, and that's unacceptable," Jack answered, looking a bit uncomfortable. He knew that Carter knew the actual reason behind his relief, even if she was in love with Kaiba now. And it was slightly embarrassing.

Repli-Carter waited patiently for them to stop speaking before she spoke up again. "Is there anything I can help you with, Tau'ri of Earth? You are the ones who hailed my ship."

"Well, actually," the Major began, "we were wondering why our ship–the Prometheus, is causing so much damage to yours. From all our knowledge it shouldn't be so easy."

"You are correct; I am putting forth no effort to respond to your ship's attacks."

The Tau'ri glanced at each other once, all of them sharing confused looks, before staring back up at the screen.

"And why the hell are you doing that?" Bakura asked bluntly, shrugging at the others when they seemed about to question him.

Repli-Carter smiled only slightly as she answered, "It is because I wish to be destroyed."

_To be Continued..._


End file.
